{"id":426101,"date":"2025-12-05T08:59:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/426101\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T08:59:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:59:14","slug":"los-angeles-clippers-waive-chris-paul-shocking-reactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/426101\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Clippers Waive Chris Paul Shocking Reactions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Los Angeles Clippers waived Chris Paul by opting not to guarantee his substantial contract to gain cap flexibility<\/li>\n<li>Teammates like Kawhi Leonard and James Harden expressed immediate shock, calling the move \u201cshocking\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The unexpected contract maneuver makes the veteran \u201cPoint God\u201d an immediate free agent ahead of the deadline<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/hypebeast.com\/tags\/los-angeles-clippers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> sent shockwaves through the league, officially waiving <a href=\"https:\/\/hypebeast.com\/tags\/chris-paul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chris Paul<\/a> by opting not to guarantee his substantial contract for the season. The decision, a strategic move to preserve future salary cap flexibility, means \u201cThe Point God\u201d is once again a free agent, ending his second brief tenure with the franchise.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, December 3, Clippers basketball president Lawrence Frank issued a statement confirming, \u201cWe 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\u2019ve struggled. We\u2019re grateful for the impact Chris has made on the franchise.\u201d This comes just over a week after CP3 posted to his social media, announcing his <a href=\"https:\/\/hypebeast.com\/2025\/11\/chris-paul-nba-retirement-los-angeles-clippers-end-of-season-25-26-announcement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retirement from the league<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>Following the Clippers\u2019 win against the Atlanta Hawks last night, his teammates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/47197695\/james-harden-kawhi-leonard-shocked-chris-paul-abrupt-ouster-clippers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spoke<\/a> to sports journalists on the move that generated immediate surprise within the locker room. <a href=\"https:\/\/hypebeast.com\/tags\/kawhi-leonard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a> expressed his shock, saying, \u201cIt was shocking to me. I guess they had a conversation, and front office made a decision.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/hypebeast.com\/tags\/james-harden\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James Harden<\/a>, meanwhile also shared, \u201cI\u2019m just as confused and shocked as you guys, the world. Definitely surprised me. But not just Chris, it\u2019s a lot that we were dealing with. But that is out of my hands. I got to focus on what I got to focus on and what I can control. I guess the front office felt that was the best decision for the organization.\u201d As for Coach Ty Lue, he responded to whether or not he thought CP3\u2019s departure will help the Clippers, \u201cI don\u2019t think it necessarily helped our team. I mean, I don\u2019t think the reason why we\u2019re 5-16 is because of CP\u2019s play. I just think that it wasn\u2019t a good fit for what he was looking for. Do I want to see CP go out like this? No, I have a lot of respect for him. He\u2019s been a friend of mine over the years, and you don\u2019t want to see a great go out like this.\u201d He added, \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure he will find something because he\u2019s a great player. [But] I didn\u2019t want to see it end like this.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>In a brief statement confirming the transaction, the Clippers acknowledged Paul\u2019s professionalism and contributions, but emphasized the need to build around the long-term core of Leonard and Harden. The unexpected contract maneuver, coming just before the guarantee deadline, underscores the ruthless nature of the NBA\u2019s business side. Paul now enters a crucial phase of his career and it remains to be seen where he will land in what is expected to be his final year in the NBA before retirement.\n<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Can confirm as Chris Paul says on his IG that he has been told he is being sent home from Atlanta where the Clippers play on Wednesday. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EITdJ9hzLt\">pic.twitter.com\/EITdJ9hzLt<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NotoriousOHM\/status\/1996127285666033865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 3, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">When told the Chris Paul news was a surprise to most, James Harden said, \u201cMe too. Woke up and saw it on social media\u2026I\u2019m just as confused and shocked as you guys, the world\u2026Definitely surprised me but not just Chris, it\u2019s a lot we were dealing with but that\u2019s out of my hands\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NotoriousOHM\/status\/1996430031904760133?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 4, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>                                                                                            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary The Los Angeles Clippers waived Chris Paul by opting not to guarantee his substantial contract to gain&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":426102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-426101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115666142227925991","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}