After 17 seasons, 1,105 NBA games, three teams and one championship, center Brook Lopez hasn’t lost his enthusiasm for basketball.
“I love playing, I love hooping. I’ve loved it since I was a little kid,” Lopez said Monday at a news conference a few hours before the Clippers and Lakers were set to face off in an NBA Summer League game in Las Vegas. “I watched my older brothers play. I’ve always been around it and love winning just as much. I want to keep winning.”
Now, Lopez brings that passion and winning attitude to the Clippers. The 7-foot-1 center signed a two-year, $18 million free agent contract with the team this month that he believes will allow him to pursue another championship. Lopez helped the Milwaukee Bucks win the 2021 title.
“I want to keep winning,” he said. “I got a great taste for it in Milwaukee and these guys are all about that here and I’m all about it, so it’s a perfect fit.”
Unlike his situation with the Bucks, where he started, Lopez will come off the bench for the Clippers. He will back up Ivica Zubac, a second-team NBA All-Defense selection last season, a role he said he is comfortable playing.
But that doesn’t mean Lopez, 37, will change his style. He said he will continue to help spread the floor, play aggressive defense and post up.
“Bottom line, I just want to help the team win,” said Lopez, who averaged 13 points, 5 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.9 blocked shots while shooting 50.9% from the floor and 37.3% from 3-point range last season. “Whatever they need me to do, whatever they see fit for my role, I’m going to be working as hard as possible to be great at that. Even if it’s something that I haven’t done yet or I may not be great at, I’m going to put my best foot forward, put the work in, I’m going to be great at it, I’m going to help the team work (toward winning).”
Lopez joins a team that won 50 regular-season games last season but was ousted in the first round of the playoffs by a Denver Nuggets squad that boasted more frontcourt size. Lopez’s size, along with the 7-foot Zubac, 6-9 John Collins and 7-foot rookie Yanic Konan Niederhauser, gives the Clippers some formidable frontcourt options.
Lopez said he is looking forward to playing alongside Zubac, who he played with briefly on the Lakers in 2018. Zubac was traded to the Clippers at midseason, but that doesn’t mean he lost sight of the young Croatian. He said he has watched Zubac continue to improve every season, saying the “sky’s the limit for him.”
“I think we complement each other extremely well,” he said. “Obviously, we’ll be very big. I think we’d be great defensively just dominating the paint, sealing the paint off and then, offensively, we complement each other there as well. I’ll spread the floor for him, give ’em all the room and the paint for him to go wild.”
Lopez also is eager to benefit from James Harden’s elite playmaking ability.
“I’m going to get as many pick-and-rolls with him as possible,” he said. “Just get in that pocket. I know he’s going to make something good happen.”
But it’s not just Harden who has peaked Lopez’s excitement in joining the Clippers. He called Collins, who the Clippers acquired in the three-team trade that sent Norman Powell to Miami last week, talented and competitive, a player who gives the team more creativity in the frontcourt.
“I think we can have a frontcourt that can dominate in so many different ways with so many different lineups. It’s just scary.”
Lopez went on to say that the Clippers have a “ton of great players, obviously Hall of Famers, All-Stars, some great young players, my guy Zubie. … There’s just a great chance to win the championship here.”