The Los Angeles Clippers made news earlier this year when it was announced they no longer wished to share the Staples Center rafters with the Lakers’ plethora of championship banners, though that seems perfectly reasonable compared to the Contra-Costa Times’ Marcus Thompson reporting the Clippers refused to share pregame chapel services with the visiting Warriors last night.
According to multiple sources, the Warriors were surprisingly given a separate, earlier, time for their own chapel services. The Clippers held their own private chapel.
“Man, they don’t want to have chapel with us?” one team source asked. “I never heard that before, but OK.”
The bad blood between the Clippers and Warriors extend back to last season, when Golden State took 3 of 4 against Los Angeles. One of the biggest victories of the last season was an upset of the Clippers at Staples Center in the third game of the season. It was the game after Brandon Rush was lost for the season with a knee injury, and the Warriors responded with a spirited performance.
Several members of the Warriors organization took that as a continuation of last year’s heated rivalry.