HEAVY IN THE GAME

Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell and Patrick Beverley are the spark that gives the L.A. Clippers their heart and grit. if all goes according to plan, the trio will also give the franchise its first-ever championship.

- DREW RUIZ

“When it was brought to us, it was like, Yeah, we gotta do that. That’s a must,” Patrick Beverley tells SLAM.

IT’S A THURSDAY afternoon in January and we’re at the Honey Training Facility, the Clippers’ headquarters in Playa Vista, CA, a city located about 30 minutes southwest of downtown Los Angeles. Montrezl Harrell has just walked through a door that leads into the media room, which is adjacent to the team’s practice court. With every step he takes, there’s a clanking sound from the plethora of chains that are stacked together around the 25-year-old’s neck.

He’s wearing a red velvet durag with a white headband over it. The ties hang down his torso. Harrell’s also wearing Beverley’s jersey. In comes Pat, a sleeve on his right arm and two headbands placed over one another, with a diamond-encrusted Cuban link and Lou Williams’ jersey on. And Lou, with no accessories other than his assortment of ice, is sporting Harrell’s home jersey.

In 2002, Elton Brand, Lamar Odom and Darius Miles graced SLAM 57 wearing each other’s jerseys backward to represent an era that was the epitome of fashion. Brand posed with a fitted; L.O. rocked a Sean John headband; and D-Miles wore the untied red durag with the white headband. Nearly two decades later, Beverley, Harrell and Williams are posing in a similar manner, paying homage to the aforementioned cover.

“They represented a culture back when they played with the Clippers,” Beverley, who’s spent the last three years with the team, says. “We reinvented something and added our own little swag to it.”

“I look at it in retrospect,” Williams adds. “Once it’s all said and done, you can look at that cover, look at us recreate it and having an opportunity to do it with this group and possibly to make history will be dope.”