It's nearing 10:30 p.m. on April 17, a pleasant spring evening in downtown Los Angeles, and the locker room that houses the Clippers basketball team looks like a daycare center.
Seven boys, their ages ranging from two to 10, are pinging around the room—chirping, hooting, clambering in and out of locker stalls and rolling chairs, bouncing a stray ball until it skitters away.
Soon the giggling gaggle is drawn to the middle stall, where Austin Rivers, the Pied Piper of Clipperdom, welcomes them with smiles and high-fives. Rivers, a 23-year-old backup guard, opens his wallet and sends each sprightly face away with a crisp dollar bill.
A few feet away, 10-year-old Emmet O'Connor, the son of assistant coach Brendan O'Connor, belts out a familiar lyric—"Droppin' dimes! Droppin' dimes!"—the signature line from a TV commercial featuring Clippers star Chris Paul and the Portland Trail Blazers' Damian Lillard, who happens to be in the visiting locker room down the hall.
The Clippers have just rolled to a 115-95 victory over the Blazers to open the playoffs. And in Clipperdom, home victories mean one thin ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Howard Beck
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