Drama ‘Clipped’ Isn’t Just About Notorious NBA Owner’s Racist Remarks

“The show in essence is about the costs of living and working and trying to thrive under the power of a racist incompetent buffoon who’s abusing their power,” says Gina Welch, the showrunner of Clipped.

The series tells the story of L.A.’s ‘other basketball team’ recounting the incident when several racist remarks made by Clipper’s owner Donald Sterling were captured on tape and shared around the world.

Based on the hit ESPN 30 for 30 Podcast The Sterling Affairs, the limited series charts the collision between a dysfunctional basketball organization, highlights an even less functional marriage, and details the tape’s impact on an ensemble of characters striving to win amid what many consider the most cursed team in the NBA.

Ed O’Neill stars as Donald Sterling, with Laurence Fishburne as Clippers coach Doc Rivers, Jacki Weaver as Shelly Sterling, and Cleo Coleman portraying V. Stiviano.

Ramona Shelburne, who created the podcast recalls that, “I would try to talk people into doing the podcast, like, “Hey, you wanna do this podcast about Donald Sterling?” And the answer was usually, ‘Hell, no,’ [because], one, they’re litigious and people don’t want to say things, and this wasn’t a fun time for anyone. But the more I would bring it up and the more I said, ‘This is an important story that people need to hear,’ [and] if you notice, I did get [NBA Commissioner] Adam Silver to do the podcast.”

As for whether the Clippers are aware that their story is getting the limited series treatment, Shelburne confirms that they are, saying she believes, “I don’t think they love reliving all of this over and over again, but I think it’s an important story for not just the NBA, but the sports world, for our whole world. And, even though people may not enjoy reliving all of that, it’s still a really entertaining watch.”

She says that once participants, ‘got into it,’ that, “they remember different things that they didn’t have the perspective on. I did the podcast five years ago; this is 10 years later now. [So], I think it will jar a lot of things for people.”

Rembert Browne, producer and co-writer of Clipped, offering his assessment, says that, “for a league that is a majority Black, it’s an important story to relive. I feel like for players, there’s an element of this that is very relatable to, like, a workplace drama. This is what it’s like to be Black in a white space. And I do think it is like a really important thing in the history of the NBA and it would be crazy not to talk about it.”

Executive producer Nina Jacobson agrees, adding, “I think one of the things from the very beginning [that we wanted to say was] what it feels like for anybody who’s ever worked for an unjust, prejudiced, chauvinistic, frequently cruel, unpredictable, mercurial boss who has all the power in the world over you and what it does to you as a person to be in a workplace that is so infected from the top.”

Jacobson says that in showing this aspect of the story, “We try to address that it causes people to feel like they have to protect themselves and the playing of favorites — the pitting players against each other — and that kind of current of cruelty that runs under it, that [it’s those] defense mechanisms needed really do undermine what’s necessary for a team to come together.”

She thinks is poignant is to see, “How hard Doc is working to overcome that history and those barriers, and just as it feels like it’s coming together, this tape comes out and blows it all up.”

Fishburne heralds Welch’s writing as a key factor in the series, saying, “When I got the first six scripts from Gina, her approach to both the racism and the sexism in the culture of the Clippers was absolutely respectful. It was honest, it was fearless. It’s one of the reasons that I wanted to do this show, because it’s very rare when you run across material where people are willing to deal with issues like racism and sexism in a frank way, and these scripts really did that.”

When asked how Donald Sterling got away with everything for so long, O’Neill stated, simply, “He had a lot of money. And he knew how to use it.”

Digging a little deeper, O’Neill provided a bit of his personal analysis into Sterling’s psyche, saying, “Well, let me put it this way; you know, he changed his name, right? It was Tokowitz. So he was a product of some racism himself as a young man, and I think it affected him negatively in some ways. It’s no excuse, but it was a certain time when he was a boy, it was a bit different historically. So, I think he had a bit of a chip starting out on his shoulder.”

For Weaver, the series features an unexpected element, as she points out, “One of the overriding scenes of this story is female power. Shelly Sterling is ultimately the winner here. She outsmarts and outwits all those guys in that bastion of male supremacy — men’s sports — with her superior business acumen, her negotiating skills. Shelly was running most of [the Sterling] real estate [empire]. She’s the strength. And I think her story strikes a nerve for women. Shelly Sterling is a softly spoken, ladylike, small woman, being underestimated and humiliated with his endless affairs, and yet in the end, she knocked it out of the park.”

One group not overlooked in the narrative is the players, says Welch. “We did extensive research; we’re all fans of them. There is conflict between the characters, that is part of the centerpiece of the storyline in the first episode. The purpose of that storytelling is to show the condition of the team when Doc shows up to coach, that there’s a downstream effect from this toxic ownership that is affecting the teammates’ ability to really support each other.”

She concludes with, “I’m excited for [everyone] to see the rest of the show because the players and our respect for the players and our investment in watching how they tried to weather these events is really the heart of the show.”

‘Clipped’ is available for streaming on Hulu.