Hulu‘s basketball docudrama Clipped takes us back a decade to dramatize the real-life scandal that led to L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling being banned from the NBA — and judging by Tuesday’s premiere, we’re not surprised he was.
The premiere starts in 2013, with new Clippers head coach Doc Rivers (Laurence Fishburne) arriving in L.A., but he doesn’t exactly get a hero’s welcome. The team doesn’t send a car to the airport, so he has to take an Uber, and all they have for lunch is a stale deli platter. Doc marvels at the fact that the Clippers have been around for 43 years and have never won a title… or even come close. When he meets Sterling (Ed O’Neill), though, he starts to understand why. The guy is reluctant to spend money to sign sharp-shooting free agent JJ Redick, and his “assistant” V. (Cleopatra Coleman) butts her way into their meeting with questions about trading players — which Doc curtly informs her is “none of your damn business.”
Doc meets with JJ (Charlie McElveen) anyway, who tells him horror stories about how cheap Sterling is, but Doc promises he’s turning the franchise around. Later, though, Doc is told Sterling has vetoed the signing, saying: “I didn’t know [JJ] was white!” Doc fights back, and though Sterling booms, “I am your owner!” he gives in and agrees to sign JJ. They all gather for Sterling’s annual white party, where players awkwardly mingle with Sterling’s business cronies. Sterling parades around star player Blake Griffin (Austin Scott) while teammate Chris Paul (J Alphonse Nicholson) seethes in the background. (The two stars “hate each other,” we’re told.) And speaking of hate, Donald’s wife Shelly (Jacki Weaver) glares as V. pulls up to the party in the shiny red Ferrari that Donald bought her.
Shelly and her friends snipe while V. dances the Electric Slide in tiny white shorts, and Shelly later asks Donald why V. has to “dress like a hoochie.” Donald says V. is helping him with his image, though — she’s recording all of their conversations to work on his “consistency” — and he hops in V.’s Ferrari for a ride home. While Doc tries to resolve the feud between Blake and Chris (they just complain about each other), V. tries to get Donald to look at a duplex she wants him to buy her. Instead, he has her slather hair dye on him while she wears a lacy bodysuit, but he promises to take her to the Dodgers game that night. She goes by herself to see the duplex (with a whopping $1.8 million price tag), and Donald stands her up, making her go to the Dodgers game without him. She gets revenge, though, by taking a photo there with Donald’s hated rival Magic Johnson.
When Donald finds out, he’s livid, berating her like a disappointed father: “Why are you taking pictures with minorities?” (Oh, and did we mention V. is recording this conversation?) Doc runs into LeVar Burton in a sauna, complaining that his team is filled with “whiny little bitches,” and Donald and V. make up, with him agreeing to buy her the duplex. She kneels at his feet, and he moans with pleasure… but she’s just rubbing his feet. V. signs the papers to buy the duplex, and the Clippers get on a hot streak after Doc gives them a pep talk about reversing the franchise’s cursed history. V. celebrates the wins sitting courtside with Donald and Shelly, but Shelly doesn’t like that and has a team official move V. to a luxury box far away from them, getting her banned from the press room as well.
V. whines to Donald, and he brings her back down to the courtside seats on her birthday, twirling her around in a green evening gown. (Shelly doesn’t like that much, either.) After a big win, Donald barges into the locker room with season ticket holders in tow, forcing the players to scramble to cover up before Doc kicks out the intruders. Shelly pushes Donald to sign an update to their family trust before running into him and V. on a shopping spree at a boutique. V. sniffs, “I don’t shop here. This store is for old ladies,” and the two of them have it out, with Shelly calling her a “thief” and V. firing back: “I’m going to be the next Mrs. Sterling. You’re history. You’re dust.” (Yowch.)
Shelly takes solace in a quiet dinner with friends, telling them Donald has had “assistants” before, but they’ve never been so in her face. She also found out that Donald bought her that duplex, so when V. goes to the next Clippers game, she is served with papers: Shelly is suing her for the more than $2 million in gifts Donald has given her, including the duplex. While V. hides in a bathroom stall, reading the papers through tears, Donald and Shelly head to the locker room to congratulate Doc and the team on a big win. Donald says he needs to check in with V., but Shelly assures him: “I took care of V.”
So was the Clipped premiere a slam dunk? Or an airball? Give it a grade in our poll, and then head down to the comments to share your thoughts.
