The Clippers did Chris Paul dirty

Chris Paul signed with the Los Angeles Clippers in July on a minimum contract. He knew he wouldn’t be starting, and they made no guarantees when it came to playing time. At 40 years old, heading into his 21st NBA season, he just wanted to wear a Clippers uniform again and be with his family.

“If I’m really honest, I wanted to get back and play here by any means necessary,” Paul said at his introductory press conference. “I didn’t even care what the team looked like. I just wanted to be home, be here with the Clippers.”

Paul wanted to retire a Clipper. On Nov. 22, before a game in Charlotte, he announced that this season would be his last. On Nov. 28, during the Clippers’ first game at Intuit Dome after that road trip, they played a video to honor him. They shared it on social media, too, with the caption, “CP3 will end his Hall of Fame career at home,” punctuated with a heart emoji. Four nights later, in the middle of the night during the middle of a road trip, they told Paul that they were done with him.

In team president Lawrence Frank’s statement about the decision, provided to The Athletic and ESPN, he called Paul “a legendary Clipper who has had a historic career.” Frank also said that “no one is blaming Chris for our underperformance” and the Clippers are “grateful for the impact Chris has made on our franchise.” This was shortly after Paul had broken the news in an Instagram story at about 2:40 a.m. ET, telling the world that he’d just found out he’d been “sent home” while the team was in Atlanta. 

Is this what gratitude looks like? Is this how you treat a “legendary Clipper?” Sure, the team has been worse than anybody could have imagined this season — they’re currently 5-16 and spiraling, with the third-worst non-garbage-time defense in the NBA, per Cleaning The Glass — but that alone doesn’t explain them casting aside one of the greatest players in franchise history.

Paul is, famously, a competitive maniac. In 2017, when asked if Paul could ever really have fun playing basketball, JJ Redick told Rob Mahoney, then of Sports Illustrated, “That’s a great question. I think winning is fun for him. I think the end result is fun for him.” He has never been shy about holding teammates accountable, and, even in the best of times, that has rubbed some people the wrong way. He recently posted the definition of “leeway” to his Instagram story, and he can’t possibly have been all smiles as the team has descended the standings. Of all the teams that could have signed him last summer, though, the Clippers had to know what they were getting.

For now, Paul is in limbo. He can’t be traded until Dec. 15, but Los Angeles hasn’t waived him. Unless there was some inciting incident that has yet to be reported, Paul, who made five All-Star teams and five All-NBA teams as a Clipper, deserved better than this kind of dismissal. The NBA can be cold and cutthroat, and no one — not even one of the top point guards of all-time — is promised a storybook ending, but in this case the Clippers were selling that story right up until the moment they shredded it.

The Clippers didn’t have to do Paul dirty. If both sides regretted the reunion, they could have mutually agreed to move on. Otherwise, they needed to do right by him and let him ride out this miserable season at home. By choosing to embarrass Paul, they have embarrassed themselves.