The Los Angeles Clippers have been struggling in their recent efforts to contend for titles, and last year was a dream turned nightmare. A season that should have seen the Clippers as a surefire giant in the West with a starting lineup of dynamic hometown heroes instead became one riddled with injuries and underperformance. 

It’s the straight cold-blooded pause — which lasted only about a second and a half, but probably a lifetime for Johnson — that I want to focus on. Disrespectful on-court acts like this is precisely what the modern NBA needs.

After dropping a season-high eight games in January, losing an All-Star big man in Kevin Love for potentially two months, enduring the shaky play of a recovering Isaiah Thomas and facing the uncertainty...