2. Do the head knock thing. Do it almost too much.
Tossing something in the trash? Head Knock.
Pretend dunking on a doorway? Head Knock.
Actually dunking because you’re good at basketball in real life unlike me? Head Knock.
Perfectly parallel parking on the first try? HEAD KNOCK.
This is one, simple, yet perfect, way to show that you’ve watched the team for a while. Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson were the duo from my childhood that helped make the Clippers cool. Both drafted by the team in 2000, they were the first players I remember gravitating towards. I know that’s true of many Clipper fans around my age. The teams weren’t particularly good, but they were better and more entertaining than any other Clipper team in my lifetime (in the three years before their arrivals, the Clippers averaged a little over 13 wins a year. Thirteen.). They also had a trademark move that they would bust out after doing something cool: the Head Knock.
While Laker fans had Kobe and Shaq, I had Darius and Q Rich. I would bust out that Head Knock anytime I played pick up or shot at trash cans or crossed up a ghost in the hallway. It made me feel cool, even though I very much was not. Don’t write that down. Write down that I was super cool as a kid.
Also, don’t do the Head Knock thing until you have read Darius’ Player’s Tribune piece. It’ll give you some more fun facts to throw out to show how long you’ve been a Clipper fan, including the fact that they did the Head Knock to shout out the Westchester High School basketball team, which is a super dope, super LA thing.