The LA Clippers shook up the NBA world in the early hours of Wednesday night when it was revealed that they were parting ways with Chris Paul amid the team’s current road trip. In the aftermath, reports have surfaced that Paul’s abrasive leadership style wore thin on the organization amid their struggles to begin the season. While more fallout from the decision might still come, former NBA player Lou Williams stated that Paul had since apologized to the team for his behavior.
Lou Williams’ comments came during an episode of the ‘Run It Back’ show presented by FanDuel, but it’s clear that Chris Paul’s apology had no effect on the Clippers decision.
“What I’ve gathered that brought an end to this abruptly was there were a few scenarios where CP was holding people accountable, from players to staff, from coaching staff up to the front office,” Williams said. “From what I understand, there was a situation where he even addressed the team and apologized and said, ‘look, my criticisms are coming from a good place. I want us to be a good team, I want us to get this thing right.’”
“And he was just holding guys accountable. Now how some of that talk was taken or interpreted, that’s up to the players and the coaching staff that was involved and how they felt about it,” Williams continued. “Down the line there was another scenario where he was critical of front office as well, and I think that was the one that broke the camel’s back.”
Paul joined the Clippers as a free agent in the offseason, but as the season progressed, he fell out of the rotation and the team continued to struggle. He had appeared in 16 games at a little over 14 minutes per game. He was averaging 2.9 points, 1.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists with splits of 32.1 percent shooting from the field, 33.3 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 50 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
