Kentavious Caldwell-Pope roasts Clippers for how they ‘s--- the bed’ in the NBA bubble
In a recent podcast interview, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope unloaded on the Clippers’ bubble performance, including revealing the Lakers wanted to play them.
Few things can truly unite NBA fans in the modern era of basketball. The Olympics is typically one of the few aspects, though even that has become pretty tribalistic this season.
One of the few moments that seemingly did have everyone pulling the same way, though, was the Clippers’ playoff implosion in The Bubble in 2020. Deemed one of the favorites on paper coming into the season, the Clippers lost in hilarious fashion, blowing a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets with a chance to meet the Lakers in the next round on the line.
It was truly one of the most unifying moments in recent league history with fans, players and even NBA legends all taking shots at the little brothers of Los Angeles as they put further one of the more embarrassing fourth quarters possible.
And if you think the Lakers themselves weren’t among those watching in amusement, you’d be wrong.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope recently appeared on Draymond Green’s podcast and the topic of The Bubble came up. What started as a conversation about whether the title should have an asterisk turned into a 20-minute roasting session on the Clippers.
Ever the instigator, Green asked a pointed question about who wanted to leave The Bubble when play stopped during the postseason. While KCP wouldn’t directly reveal if the Clippers wanted to leave, he did say that one of his favorite series of those playoffs was the Nuggets-Clippers series.
And boy, did he let loose on the Clippers.
“That was one of my favorite series of the bubble, that Nuggets-Clippers series. That was just like, how in the hell? You’re up 3-1. Even if you talked about leaving, you’re up 3-1. Finish the job. Lose the next round. You knew everybody wanted to see Lakers-Clippers that year. Just finish the job then we can sweep ya’ll. Then you can go home. Don’t do it now. We were just sitting there waiting. Like I said, that was one of my favorite series because we had to sit there and watch the whole series.”
Well damn, KCP!
The table was absolutely set for one of the most memorable Western Conference Finals in some time. The Lakers took care of things on their end, beating the Rockets in five games. Just like everyone else, they were not just ready and waiting for the Clippers, they wanted to play them.
“It would have been one of the best series that year. Everybody wanted it. And we wanted it as well. We wanted that opportunity of like, we’re going to put that s— to bed. Lakers vs. Clippers, here it is. And they just s— the bed…They were the first team ready to go, for sure.”
The only thing that will be more fun to reminisce upon than winning the NBA championship in The Bubble is the Clippers going out in the saddest way possible. It was truly a work of art, a masterpiece in failure. It will be marveled at for years, decades even. Every NBA fan will remember where they were as they watched the Clippers go down in flames.
My only hope is that the documentary on The Bubble, which is reportedly in the works, is that they adequately and properly document how hilarious a failure it was.
As KCP said, they s--- the bed and no one should forget that.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.