Former Clippers point guard Chris Paul says he “made peace with everything” after suddenly fired by the team last week.
“Things have been a little crazy these last few days, to say the least.” Paul told People magazine in an interview published Tuesday. “But honestly, I'm home. My daughter had tryouts yesterday. My nephew had a basketball game. My son has a game on the 12th.”
Paul's son, Chris Paul II, is a sophomore guard on the Campbell Hall varsity basketball team, which plays at Newbury Park on Friday.
“I’ve never seen my son play a game in person,” the elder Paul said. “Not a middle school game, not a high school game. So I'm really excited to see him play.”
Also on Tuesday, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue rejected ESPN report he and Paul had not spoken since last week in the weeks leading up to the team's decision to part ways with one of its most iconic players.
“That's not true. We talked” Lu told reporters in practice. “I mean, he played. How will he play? [if] Am I not talking to him?
“I mean, there was a stretch when we said he wasn't going to play, he was going to be out of the rotation. It was tough for him because of who he is and what the game means to him and what he brings every single day. But after that, it wasn't that much.”
Paul is a 12-time All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist who ranks second in NBA history with 12,552 assists. He was the first player to score at least 20,000 points and record over 10,000 assists.
Playing for the Clippers 2011–2017— era of the Lob City team — Paul and his fellow superstar Blake Griffin led the team to six winning seasons, its first two Pacific Division titles and three playoff series victories. A 40-year-old free agent, Paul signed a contract in July $3.6 million deal to return to Clippers on your 21st birthday, and perhaps the final oneNBA season.
This season, Paul had career lows in points (2.6), assists (3.3) and minutes (14.3). In mid-November, he did not play at all in five matches in a row. The Clippers, off to a disastrous 5-16 start to the season, were in Atlanta for a game against the Hawks when Paul made a surprise announcement on social media.
“Just found out I’m being sent home,” Paul wrote on social media on Dec. 3 around 3 a.m. ET.
Later that morning, the Clippers' president of basketball operations. Lawrence Frank confirmed the move.
“We are parting ways with Chris and he will no longer be part of the team,” Frank said in a statement. “We will work with him in the next phase of his career.”
Frank said the team will try to trade Paul, who will become eligible to be traded on Monday.
A league source not authorized to discuss the matter publicly told The Times last week that Paul has called teammates, coaches and Frank into conversations this season. Paul apologized, but “everyone is fed up,” the source said.
On Tuesday, Liu insisted his relationship with Paul was not an issue.
“I had no problem with Chris,” Liu said. “This guy is a competitor, he wants to play. You can understand that. So, you know, he was a little upset at first, but we got over it… That's my guy, my friend before he came here. So you don't want that to happen to anyone, no matter the circumstances.”
When asked why the team ultimately decided the Paul situation couldn't be fixed, Liu replied, “You'd have to ask Lawrence.”
In his interview with People, Paul did not offer any information about what happened between him and the Clippers. Instead, he seems focused on the present — “I'm really excited to be back here with my family,” Paul said — and the future.
“What I'm most excited about is being around,” he said, “and getting the chance to play a small role in what comes next.”
Staff writer Broderick Turner contributed to this report.
