No seats, no silence: A night inside the Clippers' Wall

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle approached the free throw line at Intuit Dome. He received the ball, took a deep breath, dribbled three times, then bent his knees to shoot.

In front of Castle stood a 10-foot regulation-size NBA basket. An easy enough situation for the second-year player -- then a 73.6% free throw shooter -- to sink a shot. That number, however, didn't take into account what Castle faced behind the basket.

The LA Clippers' Swell: A 44-foot-tall section full of 300 Clippers fans chanting "MISS," moving their hands from right to left and waving lime-green alien inflatables, a nod to the nickname of Castle's teammate, Victor Wembanyama.

In planning for construction of the Intuit Dome, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer wanted a building with an intense home-court advantage, emphasizing a desire to have the "best home in all of sports." He wanted to leverage technology and architecture to create an environment that would help the Clippers win.

The Clippers toured hundreds of venues with engaging spaces to find inspiration for the arena. Trip by trip, brick by brick, "The Wall" emerged: 4,500 seats and 51 uninterrupted rows, the first 13 of which are called "The Swell."

It's reserved for 300 of the "loudest, most energetic fans," where seats are first come, first served. Some people line up as early as three hours before tipoff. Cheering for the opposing team means receiving a warning card and relocation for a further offense.

Opponents shot 73.4% when facing The Wall last season. If those stats were for a team, they'd rank 30th in the league, strengthening The Wall's case as arguably the most unique part of any NBA arena.

"We like to say that when you come to Intuit Dome that you're not a spectator. You're a participant," Gillian Zucker, CEO of Halo Sports & Entertainment, told ESPN. "But when you're in the Swell, you really are a participant, and you've got a real role to play."

So, as Castle raised his arms and flicked his right wrist to shoot on March 16, the ball bounced from the left inside the rim to the right and out, missing. The Swell made its presence felt -- and on the other side of the court, Ballmer emphatically pumped his fist.

The Clippers shared Crypto.com Arena with the Los Angeles Lakers for 25 years. During that span, the Lakers -- now the venue's sole NBA tenant -- won five championships, making the arena feel more like their own, with banners and retired numbers hanging in the rafters even when the Clippers played.

As "Lob City" brought a winning culture, then-head coach Doc Rivers took action before the 2013-14 season. He decided to cover the Lakers' banners with ones representing the Clippers, outraging Lakers' fans.

"It's no disrespect. I have an amazing amount of respect for the Lakers," Rivers said. "Having said that, I work for the Clippers, and when we play, it should be the Clippers' arena."

The Intuit Dome marked a chance for the Clippers to write their own story. So, they went to work fulfilling Ballmer's wish.

According to Zucker, Ballmer kept mentioning "The Show" at San Diego State, the rowdy student section at the Aztecs' basketball arena that Ballmer said creates a fierce atmosphere. During the design process, the team received a visit from Borussia Dortmund, the German soccer club. Dortmund's stadium, Signal Iduna Park, is home to the imposing "Yellow Wall" in the south stand. It's the largest standing terrace in world soccer with up to 25,000 fans.

Those two sections got the Clippers thinking of ways to leverage a similar concept into an NBA arena. They asked their basketball scouting groups to send videos of fan sections, then finally to pick one college environment with a similar kind of excitement.

Scouts chose Grand Canyon University, which has the Havocs, who strive to be the "most spirited, energetic and disruptive student section in the country."

"We kind of took all of those concepts along with kind of the energy that some of the other NBA cities bring. Places like Utah and like Oklahoma City, and said, 'OK, how do we create a similar, really rabid fan base in Los Angeles?'" Zucker said. "And eventually, we came up with this idea of the Wall and the Swell."

Zucker said the Clippers toured hundreds of venues, with her personally going to places such as theaters, zoos, parks and museums.

There were different variations of The Wall. At one point, the Clippers had the section on both sides of the arena before settling on the current horseshoe design. Just over two years since the announcement of the new arena, the first renderings of the Intuit Dome released in September 2021 included The Wall.

"We wanted this to be a place that you have to experience live," Zucker said. "You have to be here in order to get the real energy and the vibe."

So, I decided to experience it myself.

On March 16, a Clippers representative walked me from Intuit Dome's media room to the Swell, to Row 3, "Seat" 4. Quotation marks around seat because they might as well be props -- this is a standing-only section, after all. Sitting is allowed only during breaks in the game.

"All those tickets are sold as a season ticket. Interestingly enough though, it's not a seat. So you're not actually buying a seat," Zucker said. "You're buying access and your seat gets assigned based on when you arrive at the arena."

Therefore, being part of the first three rows of the Swell means lining up hours before tipoff. A purchase of the "Swell Pass" is required. While fans had to be "chuckmark certified" -- a status that references the team's mascot, Chuck the Condor, and meant taking a quiz, among other things, when the Intuit Dome opened -- that's less of a focal point now. Anyone who downloads the arena app is automatically certified.

Tickets are also non-transferable and cannot be resold. It slightly differs from The Wall, where fans can buy seats with a strict caveat listed before completing the purchase: "No Opponent Gear. Clippers Fans Only." Opposing fans used to test out this theory, buying a spot then arriving to root against the home team, but not as much now, according to the Clippers.

If an opposing fan is identified in The Wall, they'll first receive a warning card to notify them of the section. When the Clippers handed me one for reference, my Swell mates stared at me as if I had committed a crime, letting down the section that welcomed me in as one of its own. I made sure to explain my innocence.

If they continue to support the other team or wear opposing gear, they'll be relocated. Even if the Clippers miss them, the decibel meters at Intuit Dome do not. It tracks crowd noise and alerts Clippers staff if the cheers are for the opposing team.

"It was built into the building because we wanted to be able to reward people through our loyalty program for cheering for our team. It's just part of creating home-court advantage," Zucker said. "So that was why it was built in. But this is a byproduct of that is that we are able to identify if there's an issue before one is actually created within the crowd."

Fan sections in the NBA are nothing new. The Houston Rockets once had the Red Rowdies. The Atlanta Hawks have the 404 Crew. Prior to Wembanyama launching the Jackals in San Antonio last offseason, the Spurs had the Baseline Bums.

Though some of those groups didn't last, what gives the Clippers confidence that this will is simple: The Intuit Dome is built to accommodate The Wall and the Swell.

"It's one thing to have a fan section, but their location on where they are makes them intimately part of the game," Zucker said. "And I think that that has been an important factor of this."

The Swell is specifically situated next to the opposing team's bench, creating an environment full of banter and trolling aimed in that direction. My setup offered a prime spot in the Swell's classroom of consistent (and surprisingly effective) shenanigans meant to rile up the enemy of the day.

And the Clippers' faithful keep receipts.

No matter who has done the franchise wrong through the years -- from Joe Ingles to Luka Doncic -- they make sure to welcome them with a familiar sound: "Booooo." One fan early on asked me to name my favorite player, but before I could drop one, they sent a warning.

"Don't say Luka or else you're getting kicked out."

I went with Clippers star Kawhi Leonard to appease them.

During the game, I stood next to Decely Jaramilla and Rocky Yang, two season-ticket holders with different journeys to Clippers fandom.

Alongside her husband, Marvin, and daughter, Hailey, both at the game, Decely became a fan in 2010. Yang is a more recent follower, 2025-26 marking his first season in the Swell. Next to him was Maria Manjarrez, whom he described as his "Clippers mom." They met at the Las Vegas summer league last year. Manjarrez bought season tickets once Ballmer purchased the Clippers in 2014.

The Swell followed a "Men in Black" theme versus San Antonio, meaning matching black T-shirts and sunglasses for all to wear in the section -- myself included. I put on the look, then attempted to get the attention of the photographer for this story.

I'm soft-spoken, so my words were drowned out by the in arena music. Jaramilla looked at me disappointed, informing me I needed to use my "Swell voice." How?

"Louder than that," she quipped.

That marked the beginning of my one-day contract with the Swell: a night when I grew entirely too familiar with what it feels like to have pompoms shaken furiously against the back of my head and every second of game time without yelling near me felt like sweet relief.

To my left in the center stood Casey King, a key member of the Swell whose title is "game presentation manager." King is part of the Clippers' marketing department with his work hours only on game nights. His main job is simple: ensuring the Swell is respectful and adhering to the league's code of conduct.

Decked out in a navy Derrick Jones Jr. jersey and sweats, King is in charge of a massive drum and megaphone to coordinate chants. The marketing team supports the Swell, and King has been instrumental in building the community.

"This is the wild orchestra, and that's the conductor over there," Marvin Jaramilla said, referring to King.

King bangs the drum to align with chants such as "defense" or "let's go Clippers," and the megaphone serves as a way to jump-start similar singing of words.

He was one of the key people near me, along with Hailey Jaramilla. She's a volunteer section leader, fifteen of whom do their best to keep everyone engaged. I stood in front of a barrier that cleverly read: "they're called stands for a reason," indicating the seats were purely decorative.

As the game tipped off, King yelled in his microphone: "Best fan section in the NBA, let's go." And it didn't take long for me, and the Spurs, to feel its presence.

The Clippers flew out to a 17-3 lead with the noise catching me off guard. My ears struggled to deal with the yelling, and my throat began to hurt as I often had to project to talk to the Clippers mom -- who stood one seat to my left. As Wembanyama headed to the bench, one fan in my section howled a message.

"We're better than the jackals. [Spurs guard Dylan] Harper, tell him," they said.

San Antonio managed to climb out of that hole to take a 66-52 halftime lead. As I headed to interview Zucker at the break, the effects of the Swell intensified.

The sunglasses I wore over my prescription lenses as part of the "Men in Black" theme made me forget what my unaugmented vision usually looked like. By the time I finished talking with Zucker and went back to the Swell, my normal capabilities returned -- just in time for the "go Clips go" and "L-A-C" chants to begin. There would be no rest for the weary.

Unlucky for the Swell but fortunately for my tympanic membrane, the Spurs maintained control for most of the second half. However, the exuberance of the section never wavered.

The chants didn't stop. The drum banging continued. Some yelled "get hyped" the moment energy diminished slightly as San Antonio went further ahead -- almost like the Spurs snatched energy from the Swell for their own on-court purposes.

Many Swell members come straight from work and wait hours before tipoff to find a seat. It has sparked a community of togetherness that's never reliant on wins and losses, or worried about one's background.

Jon Crumpler moved back to Southern California during the Clippers' final season at Crypto.com Arena and joined the Swell on a whim with a couple of old friends. What they found was a "wild community."

"Every game you sit with someone else that's bringing a different story and a different level of passion," Crumpler told ESPN. "And we all just get to know each other now, and it's just so wild. Just to have later in life and to grow a friend group naturally is just really unique. It's a lot of fun."

During the 2025 postseason, the Clippers flew members of the Swell to Denver for Game 7 of the first-round playoff series against the Nuggets. It's all about showing the Clippers love.

"It's provided a real sense of community, especially in The Wall and the Swell. ... They spend holidays together at this point. I think that they share more than just fandom," Zucker said. "They share friendship and the fact that you've created a space for people to do that and connect is pretty awesome."

The expectation is to cheer all game and for some, it serves as an after-work escape in which yelling at the top of your lungs is acceptable. But, above all, the Swell acts as one. During an on-court competition, Swell members recognized the participant and began chanting "one of us" after the fan won.

The Clippers fought back to cut the Spurs' deficit to single digits early in the fourth quarter, leading to deafening "defense" chants and foot stomping. Despite the Swell's persistence, San Antonio maintained control and eventually extinguished Los Angeles' momentum.

Even when trailing by 13 with 2:45 in the game, the Swell still made noise -- the one thorn in the Spurs' side they couldn't pluck out that Monday night.

San Antonio won 119-115, and as I said goodbye to my Swell mates, I asked Decely a simple question: "How'd I do?"

"You're hired," she said. "Let's go."

Maybe with some earplugs next time.