Casting is always a challenge for TV shows and movies, but it can be particularly challenging for productions focused on sports. For one thing, there’s the difficulty of finding people who both can play the sport at a decent level and can act. Beyond that, for productions focused on professional sports, they’re trying to find people who look at least somewhat like very high-profile coaches and athletes who are regularly shown on TV. And in the case of athletes, that can be harder still thanks to their body types often being somewhat different from the average actor.
The latest production to run into a lot of criticism there is FX series Clipped. That series covers the scandal that led to the end of Donald Sterling’s ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014. And it has many high-profile names involved, including Ed O’Neill as Sterling and Laurence Fishburne as then-Clippers coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers.
But Clipped has drawn backlash on several fronts. One is its accuracy; that’s been bashed by several ex-Clippers, including Chris Paul. However, it’s certainly not unprecedented for a Hollywood production to change facts or focus on certain narratives. What’s maybe more unusual, and more notable, is the criticism for how much many of these figures, including Fishburne and those playing different high-profile NBA stars, don’t really look like who they’re supposed to be.
And some particularly notable criticism there comes from ex-NBA player turned ESPN analyst Austin Rivers (who played for the Clippers from 2015-18, shortly after the time this is set). Rivers weighed in on that on his Off Guard with Austin Rivers Ringer podcast with Pausha Haghighi recently, with his rant there including comments on how Fishburne doesn’t have the body type of his father:
@offguardpod Austin locks in on the #clipped casting. #laclippers #hoops #tv #nba #foryou ♬ original sound – Off Guard
Some selected remarks from Rivers there:
“First off, Laurence Fishburne is a legend. And he’s a great actor. But the body of my father is just a little bit different. I’m not saying he’s 100 percent in shape, but he’s built a little bit different than Laurence Fishburne. We could have done a little bit of AI or something there.”
“This is unbelievable [on an image of the actor playing Golden State Warriors’ star Stephen Curry.]. That is Stephen Santiago! That’s like the third baseman for the Padres! Who the hell is that guy!”
“This is really bad [on an image of the actor playing then-Clippers’ star Blake Griffin]. That guy’s hairline is receding already. and he looks just nothing like Blake.”
“That is my local AC man, Frederick. Who is this? Who the hell is that?” Haghighi responds “This is [then-Clippers’ star] Chris Paul,” and Rivers laughs.
“Okay, wow, that’s supposed to be Klay [on the actor playing Warriors’ star Klay Thompson]. He doesn’t look like Klay at all. But it’s like a clean-cut, light skin guy, it could be fair a little bit.”
“That’s just ridiculous. There’s no effort in this. That looks nothing like DJ [then-Clippers’ star DeAndre Jordan]. First up, those don’t even pass as braids.”
“That’s supposed to be Jamal Crawford, and it looks nothing like him. It’s way too much hair, for one. Jamal had like, a bald fade.”
As noted at the top, casting passable basketball players and well-known figures is tremendously difficult. But it can be done; one of the things that drew praise for HBO’s Winning Time on the Showtime Lakers was how well the casting of both on- and off-court figures worked.
So far, the reactions to the Clipped casting have been much more negative. And that includes this from Rivers, who certainly is familiar with many of the figures involved. If this NBA analyst/take-dropping thing doesn’t work out for him, perhaps he can pivot to helping to cast Hollywood productions.
[Off Guard Pod on TikTok]
