While I love the effort the Los Angeles Clippers put into pregame introductions, there is room for change.
Dear Los Angeles Clippers Fans, Executives, and Anyone Else Who Will Listen,
We need to talk about what happens at home games before the lineups are announced. I have been going to games all my life. The team, since the end of the Sterling era, has made great efforts to make the experience of Clippers’ games much, much better for the fan. They have brought more validity to the franchise, elevating home games to a pleasant, NBA caliber experience, from what once had the ambiance of an open gym hosting a scrimmage. I have appreciated the efforts a great deal, but, there is one thing I just can’t get over: the Clipper Spirit’s opening drum routine.
The Spirit appear to have drawn influence from the Beijing Olympics’ Opening Ceremony, bringing flashing drums and drumsticks, creating what should be a fairly dynamic and entertaining visual. However, in my eyes there is a rather glaring and distracting issue with the routine. The Spirit’s movements don’t match up with the drum track going on in the background. Like, at all. It seems as though the dancers made a routine to a totally different set of music than what is played during the pregame sequence. While this seems like a minor detail to most, it gets me upset every single time. Why is it that they can’t match up?
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It would be one thing if they were doing anything other than pantomiming drumming. Unfortunately for me, they are, in fact, pretending to drum, and also hitting the drums and banging the sticks together. So not only are you getting the audio and visual disconnect between the track and the movements, you are being subjected to a totally different set of percussion sounds while the music is playing. It’s completely distracting and confusing. The cherry on top of the whole sequence is that there is a video playing and pyrotechnics going off at the same time. It is a textbook example of sensory overload.
While, again, I appreciate the Clippers trying to beef up their in-game operations, there is just way too much going on. The idea itself is bold and, if executed with a little more tact, could be a very interesting visual to start the game.
So please, if anyone out there reading this can make some change, do so, if only for my sanity.
Sincerely,
Joseph Raya-Ward