Chris Paul has long been regarded as one of the best leaders in the NBA, and although he’s currently serving as the President of the NBA Players Association, long before that, his mettle was tested in a very serious way.
The Los Angeles Clippers — one of Paul’s former teams and the one with which he’s enjoyed the longest tenure — are currently owned by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Ballmer came into ownership of the team back in 2014 after purchasing the term for a then-record of $2 billion.
Ballmer’s predecessor was Donald Sterling, who was essentially stripped of his ownership and banned from the league after TMZ released audio recordings of racist comments he made in a phone conversation.
Sterling’s comments came to light during the Clippers’ 2014 NBA Playoff run, and the team responded by participating in a silent protest prior to Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors.
Writing for ESPN’s The Undefeated, Marc Spears revisited the controversy on its five-year anniversary and interviewed a number of the Clippers involved in the protest, including Paul and Blake Griffin.
Now, Paul is preparing the release of a short documentary about the episode.
Entitled Blackballed, the documentary will be released on mobile video platform Quibi on May 11.
This too was bigger than basketball. Our side of the story – next Monday on @Quibi. #Blackballed pic.twitter.com/JHZaWICf8j
— Chris Paul (@CP3) May 5, 2020
Paul took to Twitter to promote the release of the short film, which was discussed by Deadline.com’s Eric Pedersen back in November.
Quibi has acquired a documentary series about the scandal that led to former Los Angeles Clippers owned Donald Sterling being forced to give up his NBA franchise and being banned from the league for life.
Blackballed, which counts Will Packer among its executive producers, highlights the five days during the 2014 NBA playoffs, when players and coaches led an unprecedented movement to hold racism accountable. The series that examines the cultural context of race in America through the lens of one of the most explosive events in recent sports history.
Finally, Paul will give us his uninterrupted perspective.