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A Tribe Called Bench
'A Tribe Called Bench' is born
LOS ANGELES -- Nicknames are a funny thing. People can’t really nickname themselves. Well, at least not if they want to be taken seriously anyway. And getting a nickname to stick and catch on isn’t always easy, either.
You kind of need the stars to align just right and everyone to be on the same page for it to hit … and it finally has for the Los Angeles Clippers’ second unit, which from this point forth will simply be known as “A Tribe Called Bench”.
I first asked Jamal Crawford, an early favorite to win the Sixth Man of the Year award, last month if he had a preference for a nickname for the Clippers' second unit that was slowly beginning to dominate games. He didn't at that time, but shortly afterward other writers asked fans and followers on Twitter what they thought the bench should be called.
We all had our own lame ideas. I threw out “Lob Deep”, but was immediately shot down. Dan Woike of the Orange County Register threw out “Mob Deep”, but he found out the New York Knicks had used that nickname last year. Woike then got a tweet from a San Francisco Bay Area follower with the handle @squidwai and “A Tribe Called Bench” was born.
Over the past three games, the Clippers have started to play highlights of the second unit to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario” and the #ATribeCalledBench hashtag has started trending on Twitter in L.A. during Clippers games.
It’s no surprise that the nickname has caught on over the past three games. During that stretch no Clippers starter has seen the court in the fourth quarter (except for Caron Butler being forced to play the final 1:36 during Sunday's 102-83 win over the Toronto Raptors after Matt Barnes was ejected). In fact, in four of the past five games, the Clippers haven’t needed to turn to their starters in the final stanza once.
“Our starters do a great job of wearing teams out, and then we try to bring in the knockout blow,” Crawford said. “That’s why this team was built this way. Seeing Chris [Paul], Blake [Griffin], DeAndre [Jordan], Caron and Chauncey [Billups] play heavy minutes and getting beat up last season, by the time the playoffs were here everybody was either injured or tired.
LOS ANGELES -- Nicknames are a funny thing. People can’t really nickname themselves. Well, at least not if they want to be taken seriously anyway. And getting a nickname to stick and catch on isn’t always easy, either.
You kind of need the stars to align just right and everyone to be on the same page for it to hit … and it finally has for the Los Angeles Clippers’ second unit, which from this point forth will simply be known as “A Tribe Called Bench”.
I first asked Jamal Crawford, an early favorite to win the Sixth Man of the Year award, last month if he had a preference for a nickname for the Clippers' second unit that was slowly beginning to dominate games. He didn't at that time, but shortly afterward other writers asked fans and followers on Twitter what they thought the bench should be called.
We all had our own lame ideas. I threw out “Lob Deep”, but was immediately shot down. Dan Woike of the Orange County Register threw out “Mob Deep”, but he found out the New York Knicks had used that nickname last year. Woike then got a tweet from a San Francisco Bay Area follower with the handle @squidwai and “A Tribe Called Bench” was born.
Over the past three games, the Clippers have started to play highlights of the second unit to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario” and the #ATribeCalledBench hashtag has started trending on Twitter in L.A. during Clippers games.
It’s no surprise that the nickname has caught on over the past three games. During that stretch no Clippers starter has seen the court in the fourth quarter (except for Caron Butler being forced to play the final 1:36 during Sunday's 102-83 win over the Toronto Raptors after Matt Barnes was ejected). In fact, in four of the past five games, the Clippers haven’t needed to turn to their starters in the final stanza once.
“Our starters do a great job of wearing teams out, and then we try to bring in the knockout blow,” Crawford said. “That’s why this team was built this way. Seeing Chris [Paul], Blake [Griffin], DeAndre [Jordan], Caron and Chauncey [Billups] play heavy minutes and getting beat up last season, by the time the playoffs were here everybody was either injured or tired.
Love this nickname!! And it's crazy interesting is to see some resemblance between the two super groups:
Crawford looks like Q-tip
Bledsoe looks like Baby Phife
Hollins looks like Ali Shaheed Muhammad
Turiaf looks like Jarobi White
https://twitter.com/ArashMarkazi/status/280...3618048/photo/1
^ Pure dope-ness!!
Over the past few games, the Clippers have started to play highlights of the second unit to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario” and the #ATribeCalledBench hashtag has started trending on Twitter in Los Angeles during Clippers games.
So give credit to @squidwai about the new nickname. If you’re a hip-hop aficionado (okay, I’m really not but work with me here), this was a play off the hip-hop group that was making waves in the 90s, A Tribe Called Quest.
So give credit to @squidwai about the new nickname. If you’re a hip-hop aficionado (okay, I’m really not but work with me here), this was a play off the hip-hop group that was making waves in the 90s, A Tribe Called Quest.
