LOS ANGELES — Late Wednesday morning, Clippers president Lawrence Frank joined a Zoom call with reporters for yet another uncomfortable conversation. For months, the Clippers have been under siege, from accusations of cap circumvention through a shady environmental company (the team has denied any impropriety) to a 5–16 start that has flummoxed the organization. The latest melodrama: a middle-of-the-night meeting between Frank and Chris Paul that resulted in Paul being exiled months after signing a one-year contract to return.
“Essentially,” Frank said explaining the decision, “it wasn’t working out the way we had planned.”
The decision to part ways with Paul, multiple sources familiar with the situation tell Sports Illustrated, boiled down to the Clippers deciding Paul wasn’t worth the aggravation. Paul has had a storied, two-decade NBA career. He has racked up All-Star spots and MVP votes, reviving teams in Houston, Oklahoma City and Phoenix. Any list of the greatest point guards in NBA history has Paul on it.
But Paul is opinionated. He sees the game a certain way and often demands others see it the same. When you are a star, teams live with it. When you are a backup, as Paul was in Los Angeles, they don’t.
Behind closed doors Paul had been vocal about his issues with the Clippers, sources say, which eroded his relationships with teammates and the coaching staff. Players chafed at Paul’s criticisms, which often came in lengthy conversations. “Typical, manipulative bulls---,” says one source with knowledge of the situation. Lou Williams, an ex-Clipper, claimed Paul even apologized to the team for his approach. According to ESPN, Paul and Clippers coach Ty Lue were not on speaking terms for weeks.
“Some of our business respectfully, I have to keep in house,” said Frank. “But this didn’t come down to just one incident and one meeting. It just wasn’t the right fit.”
Said Lue, “I just think it wasn’t a good fit for what he was looking for. It is what it is.”
Frank defended the late-night timing, noting that the Clippers’ plane going into Atlanta was delayed by several hours. The meeting with Paul, which lasted three hours, was emotional, Frank said. “It’s not going to be a five-minute Moneyball meeting,” said Frank. He punted on questions about tensions between Paul and Lue. “You have great intentions,” Frank said. “Some work and some don’t.” He emphasized that L.A.’s early season struggles are not Paul’s fault. “We are not scapegoating Chris Paul,” Frank said. “We have many issues, and we are going to address each issue.”
Indeed. Paul has been a shadow of his former self—his numbers across the board, including a dreadful 32.1% shooting percentage are career lows. But Paul was signed to be a backup. He is not why L.A., a top-five defensive team last season, ranks in the bottom five in this one. Why the Clippers are 29th in fast break points allowed. Why the team lost back-to-back home games to Memphis and Dallas before getting run off the floor in Miami.
“Right now we’re playing bad basketball on both ends,” Frank said. “We’re a bad basketball team and we’re capable of being a whole lot better.”
And Paul did deserve better. Among the teams Paul lifted up was the Clippers, who Paul spent six seasons with earlier in his career. L.A. was a laughingstock before Paul’s arrival, a sub-.500 team desperate for leadership. Paul was a huge part of the Clippers’ revival, unlocking the Lob City teams that energized the franchise.
Paul could have retired last summer, after a solid season in San Antonio, and maybe he should have. But he wanted one more season, in Los Angeles, close to his family. He formally announced his retirement after the season last month in a video timed before his final trip to North Carolina, his home state. Maybe Paul didn’t deserve to finish the season in Los Angeles. But he deserved better than being fired in a hotel room in Atlanta.
“You never wanna see a great go out like this,” Lue said. “But I’m pretty sure he will find something, because he’s a great player. I didn’t want to see it end like this.”
Knowing Paul, this isn’t the end. He had conversations with the Knicks last summer—Leon Rose, New York’s president, is his former agent—and there are a handful of other teams that could use backup point guard help. He could still get the retirement tour he hoped for. Just not with the team he wanted it to be with.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Typical, Manipulative Bulls---’: Explaining Chris Paul’s Bitter Exit From the Clippers.
