Former Clippers point guard Chris Paul says he’s “at peace with everything” after being abruptly dismissed by the team last week.
“Stuff’s been a little crazy in the past 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 coming up on the 12th.”
Paul’s son, Chris Paul II, is a sophomore guard for the Campbell Hall varsity basketball team, which plays Newbury Park on Friday.
“I have 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 excited about seeing him play.”
Also on Tuesday, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue denied an ESPN report from last week that he and Paul hadn’t been on speaking terms in the weeks leading up to the team’s decision to part ways with one of its most iconic players.
“That ain’t true. We were talking,” Lue told reporters at practice. “I mean, he played. How he gonna play [if] I’m not talking to him?
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“I mean, there was a stretch when we said he wasn’t gonna play, he’s gonna be out of the rotation. That was tough for him because he’s a competitor and what the game means to him and what he brings every single day. But after that it wasn’t really 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 with at least 20,000 points and more than 10,000 assists.
Playing for the Clippers from 2011-17 — the team’s “Lob City” era — Paul and fellow superstar Blake Griffin led the team to six winning seasons, its first two Pacific Division titles and three playoff series victories. As a 40-year-old free agent in July, Paul signed a $3.6 million deal to return to the Clippers for his 21st, and very possibly final, NBA season.
This season, Paul averaged career lows in points (2.6), assists (3.3.) and minutes (14.3). He didn’t play at all in five consecutive games in mid-November. 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 posted Dec. 3 on social media at around 3 a.m. Eastern time.
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Later that morning, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank confirmed the move.
“We are parting ways with Chris, and he will no longer be a part of the team,” Frank said in a statement. “We will work with him on the next step of his career.”
Frank indicated that the team will attempt to trade Paul, who becomes trade-eligible on Monday.
A league source not authorized to discuss the issue publicly told The Times last week that Paul had called out teammates, coaches and Frank this season. Paul apologized, but “everyone was fed up,” the source said.
Lue insisted Tuesday that his relationship with Paul wasn’t an issue.
“I had no problem with Chris,” Lue said. “The guy’s a competitor, he wants to play. You can understand that. So, you know, he was a little frustrated at first, but we got over that. … That’s my guy, my friend before he got here. So you don’t want to see that happen to anybody no matter what the circumstances are.”
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Asked why the team ultimately decided the situation with Paul couldn’t be fixed, Lue responded, “You gotta ask Lawrence.”
In his interview with People, Paul didn’t offer any insight on what happened between him and the Clippers. Instead, he seems to be focused on the present — “I’m excited to be back here with my family,” Paul said — and the future.
“More than anything, I’m excited about being around,” he said, “and getting a chance to play a small role in whatever anything looks like next.”
Staff writer Broderick Turner contributed to this report.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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