Clippers’ charitable event is about giving back to the community

Saturday was a day about community for the Clippers — the one they live in and the one they have become.

DeAndre Jordan, Jamal Crawford and Luc Mbah a Moute were among a group of players distributing food and personal-care items to 1,200 families at a Salvation Army in South Los Angeles. They could have just as easily been elsewhere after recent uncertainty about their status with the Clippers.

Jordan famously committed to the Dallas Mavericks before re-signing with the Clippers. Crawford was the subject of continual trade rumors. Mbah a Moute wasn’t even formally a member of the team until securing the final roster spot Saturday.

But here they all were, combining to do something more meaningful than put a ball in a basket.

“It’s bigger than just wins and losses and I think it’s bigger than basketball,” Crawford said of helping to distribute thousands of boxes of food and supplies. “This is one of the coolest things about being a professional athlete, to have this kind of impact.”

The families each received from four to nine boxes of canned foods, dry goods, toiletries and Avon products. Every item held significance considering the median income of the families the Salvation Army Seimon Family Youth and Community Center serves is only $22,000 a year.

“What’s going to happen is, they can take the little money that they have and use it for something else,” said Mortimer Jones, executive director of the Salvation Army, where the event was held. “It could be school supplies for a child, it could be clothing, it could be shoes for a kid to go to school. You can’t really price it because that brings more than just more money in your pocket; it brings a little sigh about that burden you can take off your shoulder.”

The Clippers players were joined by about a dozen members of the Army, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard who helped distribute the items. The military members were just as star-struck as the families who shook hands and took photos with the players.

“It’s great having them here,” Dan Ippolito, a Coast Guard lieutenant based in San Pedro, said of the Clippers. “It means a lot to the community and to the military members to see them and work together.”

The event had special meaning to Mbah a Moute, the former UCLA standout, because he has long considered himself a member of the Los Angeles community, often returning in the summers even as his NBA career took him elsewhere. A former prince in his native Cameroon, Mbah a Moute has also long championed charitable causes.

“I grew up around poverty, I grew up around struggling people,” Mbah a Moute said. “This is something that comes naturally. I understand what they’re going through and what it means to be in that position. I have friends and family in that position, so come out here and do this, it’s always great.”