LA Clippers have to keep their mouths shut next season

The LA Clippers have to keep their mouths shut next season and let their game talk.

It’s a tradition as old as Twitter itself: Digging up the receipts. When the LA Clippers lost game seven on Tuesday, everyone came out of the woodwork to find old takes from earlier in the season. The Clippers themselves were the biggest targets. Next season, they need to work to not let that be the case.

It all started with Paul George postgame.

"“I think internally, we’ve always felt, this is not a championship-or-bust year for us. You know, we can only get better the longer we stay together and the more we’re around each other. More chemistry for the group, the better. I think that’s really the tale of the tape of this season. We just didn’t have enough time together.”"

As soon as NBA fans heard that quote from George, it was off to the races. Here’s the thing. In June, PG appeared on Kevin Hart’s “Cold As Balls”. The biggest takeaway?

"“Immediately, we expected to come in and win it all. We didn’t have no other, like this was going to take a year to get used to one another.”"

Huh. Those two quotes don’t exactly line up, do they? While PG might have been the most ridiculed on the team for making outlandish comments, the whole team did it.

Here’s a quick list of some that ended up being flat out wrong or contradictory that I can think of off the top of my head.

• George told reporters that LA was still in the driver’s seat and not in panic mode heading into game seven.
• Doc Rivers said he has one thousand coaches and five analytics guys and then proceeded to play Montrezl Harrell instead of Ivica Zubac in key playoff minutes.
• Patrick Beverley told Stephen Curry in October that the next five years are his.
• Montrezl Harrell said he was “the modern-day Rodman” and then played poorly in the playoffs and secured only 18 total rebounds in seven games in the second round.
• Lou Williams laughed at the idea of the team having chemistry issues. Chris Haynes reported after round two that there seemed to be a real issue.

I’m sure there were a lot more. The moral of the story is that the team often shot themselves in the foot and need to let their game do the talking. This isn’t the first time a “super team” has done this.

We all remember LeBron James in Miami claiming the Heat would win “Not 1, not 2, not 3…” after signing with them. The Heat went on to lose in the NBA Finals in their first year, subjecting them to similar ridicule that the Clippers are currently getting. James learned from that and the following season, he kept quiet and went on a tear through the league.

The Clips just have to do the same. They have the perfect leader in Kawhi Leonard for it. He very rarely will say anything controversial and the team should line up with that.

In this day and age, I want to make one final thing clear. I’m not saying these players shouldn’t have a voice. When it comes to social justice issues or anything else, I hope they speak up for what they believe in. I just don’t want them to vilify themselves on the court by making claims that they cannot back up, whether it be their own doing or outside forces. Play ball and let the game do the talking for you. Once you win, then take the victory lap.