The Clippers shocked the NBA world on Wednesday morning when they announced they were cutting ties with veteran point guard and franchise legend Chris Paul, who signed a one-year deal with the team over the offseason.
Considering the front office has no incentive to outright cut Paul, but they cannot trade him until he becomes eligible on Dec. 15, the timing of the pending breakup felt a bit odd, if not jarring. It was only about a week ago that the team honored CP3's decision to retire at the end of the year with a special tribute video, one specifically calling out that he'd be hanging it up in a Clippers uniform.
Just as upsetting/shocking (if not more so), however, is the most recent post on Paul's Instagram grid, which went up just hours before the team informed him of its decision to cut ties.
The reel is Paul's take on a nostalgia-heavy social media trend wherein the poster reflects on a big crossroads or choice they made years prior that dramatically altered the course of their life/career. For his version, Paul chooses the trade to the Clippers.
"In your 20s you will be asked to move to a city in L.A. ... It's not on a map, but it is very important you practice lobs before you get there," the video reads, before cutting to a montage of moments from the team's famous "Lob City" era. (Paul also captioned the post "Lob City," in case the reference was already obvious.)
Watch that below:
So the fact that Paul would share this affectionate retrospective about the Clippers—a team that was, perhaps up until this point, widely expected to retire his jersey one day—only to be sent home just hours later?
In the brief window since the bombshell broke, multiple NBA and Clippers insiders claim the split had something to do with Paul's rapport with both the team and the front office, with whom he was said to be clashing amid a 5–16 season. According to ESPN's Shams Charania, the point guard and head coach Ty Lue had not been on speaking terms for weeks.
It's an unceremonious end to an otherwise positive partnership between the two parties, and one that threatens to overshadow the history they have together.
More NBA on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Chris Paul's Most Recent Instagram Post Makes Shocking Clippers News Even Sadder.
