No Clippers were on the NBPA call to approve the 2020-21 season

After the Players Association voted to approve the NBA’s proposal for a 72-game 2020-21 NBA season that will start on Dec. 22, Adrian Wojnarowski had a tongue-in-cheek comment about the process. He tweeted “All Votes Counted.”

Although that statement is assuredly true regarding the NBPA vote, it neglects to mention that two of the 30 teams abstained from the meeting. Per a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Clippers and the Pistons did not have team representatives on the call.

The NBPA website lists Terance Mann as the rep for the Clippers, but a team source said that Patrick Patterson is in fact the first representative, and Mann is his second.

The presence of a Clipper on the call likely wouldn’t have affected the decision itself. When the Players Association approved the restart, the final vote came in at 29-1 with the Trail Blazers as the lone defector. But it is strange that the Clippers would appear to sit out the process altogether.

It was clear in the bubble that the Clippers did not want to be there. They collectively decided as a team to go to Orlando, but there were individuals on the team who didn’t want to participate and only went because the majority decided that way. Now, the league is about to conduct another season under abnormal circumstances — a season that is extremely important for the Clippers — and the team apparently wasn’t part of the first step in the decision-making process.

This could be nothing. There will be many more discussions about the logistics of the upcoming season, and the Clippers will presumably be a part of those going forward. But for a team that lacked buy-in as recently as September, it is worth noting their absence, and whether this is the continuation of a trend.