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Former Warrior Marreese Speights Becoming Voice of Reason for LA Clippers
- Updated: December 9, 2016
PLAYA VISTA, CA — Marreese Speights ambled into the Los Angeles Clippers’ training facility, decked out in sweatpants and a self-referential “I Got 5 On It” shirt, looking every bit the happy-go-lucky guy that NBA teams and fans have come to know and love.
But the man who stepped in front of the microphones and recorders before practice on Thursday sounded little like Mo Buckets.
Nor did he the night before, when Speights shared his frustration in the locker room following the Clippers’ 115-98 blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors, the team with whom he’d spent the last three seasons.
“First we need to start really just leaving the refs alone,” Speights said at the time. “Guys just got to sacrifice, do some other things than scoring, do some other things than your personal goals. Just try something new. They’ve been doing it here for four or five years and it hasn’t been working, so it’s time to try something new.”
Like Ron Burgundy jumping into the bear pit, Speights seemed to regret his decision to speak his mind the way he did.
“You just want to win,” he said. “You just want to do it the right way, want to do it for a great coach like Doc and the city of L.A. That’s something that maybe I should’ve said a little different, but I’m not calling nobody out by it.”
Still, there were some hard truths in what Speights said, even if the Clippers—Mr. Buckets included—didn’t necessarily agree with his comments the day after.
Chris Paul, Doc Rivers and Blake Griffin all drew technical fouls for arguing with the referees. According to Sporting Charts, those upped L.A.’s team total to 20 techs—sixth-most in the league and one behind the Warriors.
That actually counts as an improvement for this group, which topped the Association in technical fouls four times during Paul’s first five seasons in L.A.
Clippers Techs, 2011-16Create your own infographics
“We’ve just got to play and understand that they’re human and they’re going to make mistakes,” J.J. Redick said of the …
