The Los Angeles Clippers have undergone a major transformation this season after a disastrous start de-railed their title hopes. Now, after being cut loose by the same team he once led, Chris Paul is speaking out on what went wrong for a squad that began with so much optimism.
“When that thing happened with the Clippers, I talked to Kawhi about every week,” said Paul on ‘7Pm in Brooklyn.’ “If I was that bad, why am I talking with Kawhi? I hit T-Lue like, I would love to finish my career here. [Lawrence] Frank, I hit him, and he said the same thing. Earlier in the season, Lawrence Frank sent me an article on how great my leadership was. An article I had never seen, he texted it to me saying, ‘Man, this is great leadership right here.’ I was extremely grateful, and you saw I was emotional when I went back. I knew it was gonna be my last year, and I was getting to play in front of my family.”
Paul kept in contact with several Clippers personnel after being sent home, and nobody on the team refused to take credit for pushing him out. The only hint was a statement from Tyronn Lue, who argued that Paul was a bad fit in the locker room. For Chris, however, the whole thing is hard to understand.
“I’m grasping it, trying to figure out how it got to that,” added Paul. “I believe in communication. During training camp, I talked to one of my teammates for a while, and then as soon as I went into the meal room, somebody came and told me they didn’t want me giving players advice. So I told them, ‘You were my assistant coach, I know you…’ but it was just a lot of back and forth.”
It’s still unclear what exactly happened in Los Angeles, but there are theories that head coach Tyronn Lue is involved. There’s also the reported incident with assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy. Whatever the case, everyone was playing nice (including Lawrence Frank) before he was ultimately let go and forced into an early retirement.
Whether you love or hate Paul, that’s no way for a franchise to treat one of its greatest legends. Paul led the team to prominence following decades of irrelevance, and he still remains the greatest player in the franchise’s history as a 12x All-Star and 11x All-NBA player with career averages of 16.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 9.2 assists, 2.0 steals, and 2.0 blocks per game on 46.9% shooting from the field and 37.0% shooting from three.
What’s worse is that the move was in vain, given that the Clippers traded James Harden and Ivica Zubac a few months later. The one saving grace in this is that Paul confirmed that Frank told him the Clippers will still retire his jersey, meaning Paul will still get celebrated as he deserves.
