INGLEWOOD, CA — The Los Angeles Clippers officially announced Chris Paul's return to the franchise this week, with the 20-year NBA star returning to the place he calls home and reuniting with two of the many individuals who were here during his first stint: Tyronn Lue and Steve Ballmer.
Paul left the Clippers as part of a sign-and-trade back in 2017, but has now returned eight years later for what he's hoping is the closing chapter of his NBA career.
Chris Paul details relationship with Clippers' Steve Ballmer, Tyronn Lue
Chris Paul and head coach Tyronn Lue spent the 2013-14 season together, when Paul was the starting point guard for the Clippers and Lue was an assistant coach under then-head coach Doc Rivers.
During his introductory press conference earlier this week, Paul didn't have an answer for a question regarding where the Clippers stand in the Western Conference, but did mention how excited he is to play under Lue.
“I'm gonna tell you, I'm excited to play for T-Lue,” Chris Paul said of Tyronn Lue. “People probably don't remember T-Lue was my assistant coach when I was here with the Clippers, and we stayed close over the years or whatnot.
“What makes T-Lue different from a lot of coaches, it’s a lot of great coaches in this league, but T-Lue is one of the co aches that I think teams, you have to prepare for him too. It's weird being other teams playing against the Clippers, because a lot of times you just scouting, like how do we stop Kawhi [Leonard]? How do we stop this? Just know a lot of team’s respect T-Lue and his ability, so I'm excited to be over here too.”
When Paul departed the Clippers, he left for the Houston Rockets via a sign-and-trade that brought back Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell, and Sam Dekker. In a lot of ways, that deal helped set the table for the Clippers to remain competitive, build an identity, and attract free agent superstar Kawhi Leonard.
“You know what’s crazy is I actually saw that the other day and I didn’t even think about that,” Paul joked. “That when I left, how everything sort of happened, right? And me not signing as a free agent, I hadn’t thought about that, you know, like it’s just wild.”
I asked Chris Paul about his relationship with James Harden, who he says he’s had conversations with and is looking forward to teaming up with him on the Clippers.
“We definitely have unfinished business, so we get a chance to see what’s going on here.” pic.twitter.com/7u6iKljoQf
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) July 28, 2025
Aside from his being an NBA star, Chris Paul served as President of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) from 2013 to 2021. That covered most of his Clippers tenure and went well into his time with the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder. As President of the NBPA, Paul was often in talks with players and owners around the league, and so remaining in touch with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer despite him leaving wasn't a surprise.
“Steve [Ballmer] was amazing then and he's amazing now,” Paul added. “I don’t know about the rules and all that stuff in the NBA or whatnot. I don’t know what people can know or what don’t know, but we’ve stayed [in touch], texted and communicated and stuff like that. Just because, I mean, I was the president of the union, so there’s other owners around the league I’ve gotten a chance to know. So, just like anybody else, when this place was being built, I was curious. I was curious, so I got a chance to reach out to him last summer and wanted to just see the building.”
Chris Paul spent the better part of an hour prior to his press conference with members of the media touring through the halls of Intuit Dome, checking out his new team's locker room, and seeing his No.3 jersey hanging at his locker as well.
“I’m grateful that he showed me around,” Paul explained. “And so just walking around just now, it’s a total different feeling, right? Last time I walked through here, I was just sort of peeking because I didn’t know if a guy on the current team was here and they're like, ‘what the hell are you doing.’ So, man, I remember when he first got the team. I remember meeting him and talking to him about his family and his kids, and I asked him how many games he’s going to come to. And one of his kids was playing in high school at the time, and he said that if his kid had a game, he wasn’t coming to our game, right? And I’ll never forget it, because I appreciated that, because that showed how much his family meant to him. More than all of this.”
In his 20-year NBA career and 1,354 regular season appearances, Chris Paul averaged 17.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, 9.2 assists, and 2.0 steals in 33.7 minutes per game. In 149 playoff appearances, Paul also averaged 20 points, 4.9 rebounds, 8.3 assists, and 1.9 steals per game while shooting 48.4 percent from the field and 37.3 percent from three.
