While the other 29 teams in the NBA make news mostly for what they do on the court, the Clippers have a habit of being noticed for all the wrong reasons. Once upon a time, it was Donald Sterling. Over the past few months, it’s been the Kawhi Leonard Aspiration scandal. Determined to outdo themselves, now the Clippers have cut franchise legend Chris Paul in the middle of the night, cutting short what was supposed to be his farewell season.
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It’s a bizarre move by a franchise desperately in need of some good headlines, especially given how badly they’ve played this season in stumbling to a 6-16 record. Worse still, Shams Charania reported the reason Paul was cut was that he was “vocal in holding management, coaches and players accountable, which the team felt became disruptive.”
Paul has been letting his feelings be known about the move through social media. Last night, he liked a post on Instagram that read, “Dedicated half his career to a d****** franchise, returning for one final storybook retirement season, then at midnight a month into the season he’s ‘sent home’ as a 40 year old in your 21st NBA season. The Clippers organization is truly criminal.”
Paul also posted a photo to his Instagram story of himself, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, aka the former proprietors of Lob City, all laughing hysterically, presumably at the Clippers.
This is just the latest reminder that having the richest owner in the league isn’t enough on its own to stop being a laughingstock. Maybe if the Clippers did a better job of holding themselves accountable, they wouldn’t be 6-16. Their one silver lining to this dumpster fire of a season was that they could celebrate the best player in franchise history as he rode off into the sunset, but now they can’t even do that.
The situation is going to get worse before it gets better for the Clippers. Both James Harden and Kawhi Leonard said they didn’t find out about the move until Wednesday morning. Leonard also seemed to throw the team under the bus when he said that he enjoyed the conversations he had with Paul about trying to improve the team.
The Clippers have already lost Bradley Beal for the season due to a fractured hip. The guy he ostensibly replaced, Norman Powell, is tearing it up in Miami. Now they’ve cut Paul in the most disrespectful way possible, leaving behind two guys who don’t seem happy at all to be there, all while social media is on them for their lives. What a mess.
