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Post game quotes from athletes and coaches are a funny thing.
A lot of the time they’re fairly inconsequential coach speak. “We always want to win” or “we have to execute better,” boring stuff like that.
Sometimes they’re a little more fascinating than that, maybe an anecdote about what specifically motivated a player’s performance, or a coach revealing their thoughts on how a player has progressed.
Every once in a while, though, we get a true treasure. Sunday night was one of those nights, as Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Clarkson was asked if he had confidence when Metta World Peace shot his would-be game-winner against the Minnesota Timberwolves (he missed, the Lakers got the rebound, and D’Angelo Russell hit a buzzer-beater instead).
Clarkson had a, shall we say, interesting way of describing what he thought was going to happen when he saw World Peace standing alone in the corner, ready to heave his potentially game-deciding shot:
Did Jordan Clarkson think Metta's 3 at the end was going in? "I don't know. He was shaking like a stripper in the corner."
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) April 10, 2017
I have legitimately never heard this analogy for anything before tonight, and I think Clarkson may have just started a new phrase. Next time you see someone looking nervous or jumpy, you have to* ask them if they’re all right by saying “Are you okay? You’re shaking like a stripper.”
*DISCLAIMER: YOU PROBABLY SHOULD NOT DO THIS IN MOST SITUATIONS.
The biggest surprise in all of this is that Clarkson may have just moved into pole position for “Lakers quote of the year,” meaning World Peace or Nick Young have to say something truly special to make their co-favorites status for that honor come true.
I’m so excited to see what they come up with that I’m shaking like a stripper.
Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.