As far as the LA Clippers are concerned, the Chris Paul saga is over and done with. But for everybody else, it remains a subject of debate. After all, Paul was arguably one of the greatest Clipper of all time. So, unceremoniously booting him out amidst his retirement season is a PR nightmare to say the least.
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In all fairness, the accusations against Paul wanting to hold people responsible for the Clippers’ poor performance this season wasn’t exactly out of character for the future Hall of Famer.
Former NBA champion Paul Pierce believes, despite Paul’s probable actions, his NBA career would have come to a very different end if the Clippers weren’t dwelling on 14th in the Western Conference.
“When you are losing, everything gets amplified, like you don’t want to hear nothing,” Pierce said on the No Fouls Given podcast.
“If they [Clippers] were a .500 team or better, it would be different. But when you lose bro, and I have been in locker rooms where little thing gets magnified and it’s like’ damn! Two weeks ago this wasn’t a thing, now it’s something this major.’ It’s done blew up into something it shouldn’t have been” the former Celtics star explained.
Pierce doesn’t think it’s the right way for things to work but blames it squarely on the prevalent culture in the NBA. “They have been for the most part, a winning culture, the Clippers. They make the playoffs every year,” noted Pierce.
Danny Green, responded to Pierce, claiming that these locker room cultures can be toxic. Citing his own situation as an example, Green revealed that there have been times when coaches don’t want players to suggest anything, which makes the environment extremely foul for everyone involved.
He asserted that the least the Clippers management could have done was to listen to Paul, who has had a stellar career in the NBA for over 2 decades. “You don’t want a m******** to be scared to ask questions or scared to bring things up,” he argued.
Pierce nodded in agreement and said that nobody in the locker room should be seen as “lesser than” because they might see things that other have missed and thus come up with unique inputs.
Chris Paul, meanwhile, seems to be enjoying what has been an early retirement. The former Clippers star was last seen attending the NBA Cup semi finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder; both teams he has played for before.
