Dec. 4, 2025, 10:10 a.m. CT
In the middle of the night, the LA Clippers shocked the NBA world on Tuesday. They shockingly parted ways with Chris Paul. While not officially waived yet, the 40-year-old announced on social media that the team he’s most affiliated with sent him home.
As most can imagine, emotions ranged from confusion to anger. How can the Clippers pull the rug underneath the feet of another franchise legend? Especially since Paul recently announced that this would be his final NBA season as he will soon retire.
The Clippers have had a disastrous start with a 6-16 record. And they can’t even hide behind bad injury luck to excuse this. Both Kawhi Leonard and James Harden have mostly been healthy. They’ve both put up numbers, too. LA has gone from a penciled-in contender to a team that might gift the Oklahoma City Thunder a high 2026 lottery pick.
I guess all those realities were too much for the Clippers. Paul’s constant criticisms from the front office to the team have apparently worn thin enough to cut his retirement tour short after just 16 games.
Once the dust settles, is this really how Paul would see his Hall-of-Fame career end? On a whimper? He likely had zero aspirations to win a ring when he joined the Clippers. But surely it’s still a shock to see him not contribute to a contender. That was likely the pie-in-the-sky scenario.
But now that Paul’s second stint with LA has abruptly ended, what’s the next step? Could the Thunder throw him a life vest? The reigning NBA champion has been the best team by far, boasting a historic 21-1 record and plus-15.3 point differential.
Even though his relationship with the Clippers has soured, Paul remains a fan favorite in OKC. His sole season on the Thunder rejuvenated his career and helped mentor Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. After trading away Russell Westbrook and Paul George, Paul led one of the more fun OKC teams in franchise history as it played above expectations.
Is there a way for the Thunder to add Paul and give him a storybook ending with a possible championship ring at the end of the season?
While it’d be a cool Disney movie plot, I wouldn’t count on it.
The Thunder don’t usually operate roster moves under nostalgia. They’ve run it back with mostly the same roster from last season. And so far, OKC has looked like geniuses to not mess with perfection. While a Paul reunion would be a cool story on the surface, it doesn’t make much basketball sense, unfortunately.
You can appreciate Paul for what he’s done for OKC. Not just for his sole season there, but for his first two years in the NBA on the OKC Hornets as the franchise temporarily relocated from New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina. Without those two test seasons, the NBA is likely more skeptical of relocating the Seattle Supersonics to OKC in the first place in 2008.
But the NBA is a results-first business. And so far, the Thunder have proven to be a win machine. You don’t mess with that out of pure sentiment. Even for somebody as beloved as Paul is. Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort still speak fondly of him to this day.
Hopefully, Paul can end his career on his terms. What the Clippers did is just basketball malpractice. They had him in the building for six seasons at the peak of his powers. They should’ve known the type of personality he’d be in their locker room. To do him this dirty deserves all the ridicule that’s been thrown their way.
Maybe the basketball gods will punish LA by gifting OKC a top draft pick.