PGet out your Los Angeles Clippers bingo cards. Does anyone have a square that says “owner and star player” accused of evading the salary cap by inappropriate means.” Go ahead, print that. How about “losing 14 of 16 after an encouraging 3-2 start”? Mark that. And yes, you can fill in with “another star averaging nearly 27 points a night at age 36, including 50 points against the Detroit Pistons, one of the league's best teams.” The box says: “Clippers fans are tearing up growing their hair at an alarming rate and brooding over the shameful desertion in fair weather,” can probably safely be struck out before consideration. media cycle in the wee hours of Wednesday morningeveryone can check the most depressing box of all: “a beloved, decorated veteran unceremoniously tossed to the wayside in his final season.”
The Clippers have posted a winning record every year since 2010–11, earning a reputation as one of the NBA's most reliable playoff contenders. Twenty-one games into this young season, that identity has dissolved into something hazy around the edges—and unmistakably sinister.
The award-winning veterinarian is 40 years old. Chris Paulwho posted on his Instagram Story that the Clippers were sending him home from his ongoing road trip. Lawrence Frank, the Clippers' president of basketball operations, confirmed the news in a statement. on ESPN: “We are parting ways with Chris and he will no longer be part of the team.” Frank added about Paul, despite the platitudes about his status as a Clippers icon: “I want to make one thing clear. Nobody is blaming Chris for our poor play.” Clearly.
Paul joined the Clippers in 2011 and helped them begin a long streak of winning seasons before leaving in 2017. (His eventual trade to Houston returned seven players, a protected 2018 first-round pick and the better part of a million dollars.) In Los Angeles, he averaged 18.8 points and 9.8 assists, made three All-NBA first teams and turned the franchise into Lob City with these feathered frogs to Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan – finally injecting personality and excitement into a long-moribund club. He stole the ball so ruthlessly that he injured his fingers, and his gnarled fingers began to work New York Times article. People called him “Dot God”. He will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer and is only six feet tall. He never won a championship, playing in just one NBA Finals with the Phoenix Suns in 2021, but his years with the Clippers brought him great recognition. Here's why the return is in 2025 obviously meant so much “Paul accepted a reserve role last season and the fans embraced the homecoming just as deeply.
The honeymoon did not last long. Time dulls even the sharpest skills, but instincts remain intact. In the return match, Paul averaged just over 14 minutes and three points per game. And, according to ESPN a soviet machine with Shams Charania's style-defying stylehe “said he was holding management, coaches and players accountable in what the team felt was becoming destructive,” even for weeks without talking to Tyronn Lue. Was Paul really such a nuisance that expulsion was the only option, or is management looking for answers amid horrific results? For those who thought that trauma was the only potential obstacle to this sweet reunion, consider this a reminder: defeat opens up all old wounds. What started out as a heartwarming final season twist has now ended abruptly and awkwardly.
It only makes the Clippers, who are tied with the tragic Sacramento Kings for second-to-last place in the West (thank goodness the Pelicans are somehow worse than both), look even more dysfunctional. Tell a new NBA fan or alien that this team went toe-to-toe with Nikola Jokic's imperious Denver Nuggets in the playoffs last season, and he'll stare back in confusion. Only the 4-17 Indiana Pacers, who were six months away from the NBA Finals, lost worse. At the very least, they can blame it on a brutal series of injuries.
As for Paul? His career will remain widely respected and fondly remembered, this unfortunate final chapter aside. The only regret that remains is obvious: the missing championship. Sentiment certainly played a role in his decision to return, but just as important was the chance—no matter how small—to chase the elusive Larry O'Brien Trophy with a team that looked strong last spring. Now he won't win with the Clippers. And unless their early-season collapse is some grand basketball mirage, they can't win without it either.
