Clippers' Chris Paul Decision Is Another Ugly Chapter in Franchise History

The team shockingly sent the franchise legend home on Wednesday morning.

Nov 29, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul (3) looks to shoot during the second quarter against the Dallas Mavericks at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Clippers are sending franchise legend Chris Paul home.

In an early season that's had no shortage of low points, the Clippers can add another one to the pile, and the 2:40 AM local time decision on arguably the greatest player in franchise history is the worst of them.

Chris Paul on Instagram: pic.twitter.com/X3MpJXJnrg

— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) December 3, 2025

Clippers President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank put out a statement about moving on from Paul, saying:

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 an outstanding 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 now. There are a lot of reasons why we've struggled. We're grateful for the impact Chris has made on the franchise.

Lawrence Frank

Paul, of course, announced less than two weeks ago that this season would be his last in the NBA, and the curtain call with the team that he was spending his seventh season with has come to an end abruptly and unceremoniously.

In a statement that should go without saying: that's not how to treat a franchise legend. But the Clippers have been down this road before.

Paul and former forward Blake Griffin spent six seasons as teammates, leading the resurgence of what had been a downtrodden franchise. The duo combined to create the "Lob City" era, giving the team a level of excitement and success that had never been seen before in team history.

It looked as if Griffin was set to play his entire career in Clipper red and blue before he was traded midseason to the Detroit Pistons in the 2017-2018 season, cutting ties with a legend just two years into a five-year, $171 million contract.

Paul's release in the early morning hours of a game day in Atlanta is another ugly chapter for the Clippers, one that was entirely self-inflicted and preventable.

Yes, there are many reasons why the team sits at just 5-16 on the season, but Paul wasn't one of them.

The NBA and professional sports as a whole are a business. That's been a cliche that's been said and proven to be true time and time again.

You can add Chris Paul to that list after his undeserved departure, and it's frankly a dirty piece of business done by the team that he helped change the fortunes of.

This era in franchise history was supposed to end on a celebratory note where the legend would say goodbye to a team that he jump-started in front of fans that he surely helped to create in the first place, before his jersey was inevitably retired.

Instead, the Clippers bid adieu to him in the early morning hours -- about 3,000 miles away from the city that he made his home. And it didn't have to, and shouldn't have come to a close that way.