Chris Paul’s surprising ouster from the Los Angeles Clippers reportedly happened as a result of both head coach Ty Lue and players on the roster growing tired of the future Hall of Famer’s leadership style.
According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick, Law Murray and Joe Vardon, Lue and the coaching staff were “at wit’s end” with Paul, while some of CP3’s teammates “took exception with his disparaging tone.”
A source with knowledge of the situation told The Athletic that Paul met with Clippers officials on multiple occasions, and he was told to stop the “locker room lawyering.”
Paul, 40, signed with the Clippers this past offseason to be a reserve guard and mentor on what was expected to be a playoff team and potential championship contender.
However, L.A. currently has the third-worst record in the Western Conference at 6-16, and it is trending toward missing the postseason for the first time since 2022.
Paul previously played for the Clippers from 2011 to 2017, and he is widely regarded as one of the best players in franchise history, as five of his 12 career All-Star nods and five of his 11 All-NBA selections came while he donned a Clippers uniform.
For most of his career, Paul put up big numbers, averaging 16.8 points, 9.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 steals per contest in 1,370 career games.
However, he took a back seat to other players during stints with the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs before returning to the Clippers.
While the expectation was that he would take on a significant leadership role, The Athletic reported that Paul’s “constant criticism internally had been the root of the perceived problem.”
Things came to a head Tuesday night when Paul had a lengthy meeting with Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank, which poured into the early morning hours of Wednesday.
At 2:40 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Paul wrote in a post on Instagram that he “just found out I’m being sent home.”
Frank confirmed the move Wednesday, telling reporters, “It wasn’t working out the way that I had planned and we had planned and it’s unfortunate.”
Paul averaged just 14.3 minutes per game in the 16 games he played for the Clippers this season, so parting ways with him was seemingly more about attempting to improve the locker room environment than it was opening up more playing time for other players.
It is now firmly in the hands of superstar veterans James Harden and Kawhi Leonard to lead the way, but even if things prove to be more harmonious without Paul, it will prove difficult to overcome such a poor start to the season.
