Diamond Head loomed in the background and Kalakaua Avenue bustled Thursday afternoon as the Clippers loaded into outrigger canoes, paddled away from Waikiki’s famed shoreline and began to race.
Players raised their arms, as if on a roller coaster, as boats rose and fell over the breakers. Eventually they turned around and returned to the beach as tourists gawked at the sight of 7-footers paddling furiously.
The event had nothing to do with basketball. Just as the players’ dinner Tuesday at the restaurant Stripsteak, atop a sprawling mall near the team’s waterfront hotel, wasn’t arranged with an eye on foiling a Golden State pick-and-roll in crunch time.