Doc Rivers Says the Clippers Made 61 Calls During a Crazy Background Check on Lance Stephenson

Is there anyone they didn’t call?

Image via USA TODAY Sports/Kelley L. Cox

Before the Clipperscompleted a trade for Lance Stephenson over the summer—a trade that upset former Clippers player Matt Barnes—the team did a very thorough investigation into his background. Now, this isn’t all that rare, as it sounds like the Clippers always do background checks on players before adding them to their team. But Born Ready’s was different because it involved the Clippers calling—get this—61 people. It sounds like they were definitely nervous about trading for a guy who didn’t quite fit into the Hornets’ scheme last season.

“I don’t think we’ve ever made more [background] calls for a player in my life,” Rivers told USA Today, noting that the team typically only calls about 20 people. “We had to make sure.”

Eventually, they were satisfied with the answers they got from people—or at least, satisfied enough to not have to call a 62nd person—and decided to pull the trigger and trade for Stephenson.

“I think he has a chance to be really disruptive to other teams,” Rivers continued.

So far, so good. Stephenson dropped seven points and added two rebounds and two assists in limited action last night against the Kings.

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[via USA Today]

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