Head Athletic Trainer Jasen Powell Keeps the Clippers in Great Shape
As loaded as the LA Clippers bench is, the one guy you never want to see coming off that bench during a game is Head Athletic Trainer Jasen Powell. Powell is an elite talent, for sure, but the longer he stays seated, the better it is for the Clippers.
In the epic 2019 postseason, much has been said about the culture, class and depth of the front office and coaching staff of the LA Clippers, and how that culture positively influenced the moves that have catapulted the team into potential championship contention. Jasen Powell, who has been Head Athletic Trainer of the Clippers since 1999, is an integral part of the team behind the scenes that supports the athletes on the floor.
His face is a familiar sight to television viewers, on the bench during play and checking in with players and coaches during breaks in the action. Powell is on the front lines of every health-related issue with the team, which is not always an easy place to be. In fact, he was the first to let Doc Rivers know of the injury to Blake Griffin resulting from his off-court altercation with a former staff member, as Powell had the dubious distinction of waking Doc up with that news on a 4 a.m. phone call.
Powell grew up in the sports world, where he was a high school All-California basketball selection, playing against NBA stars Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray. Powell graduated to college basketball at San Diego State and Cal Poly Pomona before becoming a summer assistant athletic trainer with the Atlanta Falcons, and an assistant athletic trainer with the San Francisco 49ers prior to moving to his position with the Clippers twenty years ago. Not only does he provide hands on care for the elite athletes of the Clippers, Powell has also championed changes that are on the cutting edge of sports medicine, and established the Jasen Powell Health Promotion Scholarship in his hometown of Oakland, supporting college-bound students who are pursuing careers in athletic healthcare.
In the 2017-2018 season alone, Powell and the Clippers were faced with a pretty unprecedented string of injuries, including former Clippers favorite Blake Griffin, who came back from a knee injury long before his estimated return time, former Clipper Danilo Gallinari who played only 21 games in the 2017-2018 season due to injury yet came back to have a career defining year in 2018-2019, and current Clippers star Patrick Beverly who returned stronger and better than ever from a microfracture and meniscus injury to his right knee.
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The LA Clippers are lucky to have Powell anchoring their medical staff with his experience and skills both as a former player and as an athletic trainer. But if it’s all the same to him, we’d all prefer to see Powell benched for the whole season, enjoying the stellar play of a healthy Clippers squad.