A few weeks ago, veteran point guard Chris Paul announced that he would be retiring at the end of the season. Then, early on Wednesday morning, he made another shocking announcement: he had been sent home by the Los Angeles Clippers in the middle of the night.
The post, in which Paul said, “Just found out I’m being sent home,” was shared at 2:40 a.m. ET. The Clippers, through president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank, later followed up with a statement around 3 a.m. that said, “We are parting ways with Chris, and he will no longer be with the team. We will work with him on the next step of his career. Chris is a legendary Clipper who has had a historic career. I want to make one thing very clear. No one is blaming Chris for our underperformance. I accept responsibility for the record we have right now. There are a lot of reasons why we’ve struggled. We’re grateful for the impact Chris has made on the franchise.”
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The suddenness of the move, the timing of it, and the nature of it happening to a future Hall of Famer had much of the basketball world in shock.
As of now, it’s unclear what sparked such a drastic move, but it’s another stain on what has been a dreadful start to the season for the Los Angeles Clippers.
The season began with the NBA launching an investigation into whether or not Clippers owner Steve Ballmer used backchannel investments to give star wing Kawhi Leonard more money while circumventing the salary cap. Leonard then missed an extended period of time with an injury, veteran Bradley Beal was lost for the season with a hip injury, and newly acquired John Collins struggled so much to fit into the offensive flow that the team already began looking to trade him.
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After a dreadful performance on Monday night against the Heat, in which Clippers coach Tyronn Lue pulled all of his starters two minutes into the third quarter, the Clippers now sit at 5-16 on the season and don’t even have the rights to their first-round draft pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
It’s a startling collapse for a franchise that has had 14 consecutive winning seasons, including six with Paul in uniform between 2011-2017. Those seasons were marked by Paul making three appearances on the NBA First-Team, five First-Team All-Defense honors, and two top-five MVP finishes. In his career, he is a 12-time All-Star, an 11-time All-NBA selection, and a nine-time All-Defense selection. He’s second in the NBA in career assists, trailing only John Stockton, and was the first player to score at least 20,000 points and record 10,000 assists.
This is obviously not the same version of Chris Paul. In his first 16 games, the 40-year-old is averaging 2.9 points, 1.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 0.7 steals per game while shooting 32.1% from the field and 33.3% from beyond the arc. He’s playing just 14 minutes a game after playing 28 minutes per game and starting all 82 games for the Spurs.
Yet, with this being Paul’s last year, it would be surprising if we didn’t see him on the court with somebody this season. He is not going to let his career end with a middle-of-the-night release. So the Clippers will most likely look to facilitate a trade, just like they traded Eric Bledsoe in 2022 before he never played a game again, and like they traded John Wall in 2023, before he never played a game again.
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Hopefully, this saga will end differently for Chris Paul, and his farewell tour can continue in a new location.