The Golden State Warriors made a stunning comeback to down the Los Angeles Clippers in the 9-10 play-in game. Steph Curry continued his second decade of tormenting the Clippers, took revenge on Kawhi Leonard for the 2019 NBA Finals, and earned a meeting with the Phoenix Suns. Though he was only a Warrior for a single season, Chris Paul delighted in seeing his old team win, though not nearly as much as in seeing his other old team lose.
Paul posted
an image known as the “Biggest Hater’s Funeral” after Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Al Horford joined forces to down the Clippers, 126-121. The Point God was a member of the Clippers earlier in the season before the team sent him home for, well, being Chris Paul. He reportedly argued with coaches and once changed a defense, infuriating Clippers assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy. Yes, Jeff Van Gundy. And you thought CP3 was washed!
If you paid attention to any of Van Gundy’s basketball commentary the last few years, you’d expect Van Gundy’s huddles to be full of long monologues about his hatred of leftovers, pretending to misunderstand basic English-language idioms, picking fights with Mark Jackson, and making disturbing inquiries about what you’re allowed to do with blood relatives.
Perhaps Van Gundy clashed with Paul out of habit, since he spent a decade reflexively arguing with one of the NBA’s all-time assist leaders. But Paul lost his battle with authority. The Clippers sent him home and later traded him to the Toronto Raptors, and Paul announced his retirement.
Is Chris Paul annoying? Of course he is! But he’s also the single biggest reason the Clippers are no longer a joke of an NBA franchise. OK, they’re less of a joke. It also sounds like this team is full of jerks.
Paul threw a Halloween party for his teammates. He also invited the Clippers to his suite at a Los Angeles Rams game, located down the street from the Clippers arena. Only three Clippers showed up to the Halloween party. Granted, given what we’ve learned about Kawhi Leonard’s $28M endorsement deal with the team’s jersey sponsor, maybe the Clippers know they don’t have to show up to things to get paid, like tree-planting events or the final minutes of a play-in game.
One hallmark of the Steve Ballmer era of the Clippers has been bitter departures with the team’s best players. They convinced Blake Griffin to sign a contract extension with a push that included putting him on a t-shirt alongside figures like Barack Obama, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., then traded him six months later. Patrick Beverley was so fired up to beat his old team in a play-in game that he celebrated like he’d won an NBA title.
Now Paul is trolling the Clippers on Instagram after the team ensured a fifth straight year without a playoff series win. Let’s hope he’s watching Friday, because the Warriors are facing another old CP3 team that ditched him unceremoniously. How’d that Bradley Beal trade work out, Isiah Thomas?
