{"id":481817,"date":"2026-02-21T11:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/481817\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T11:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:24:07","slug":"chris-paul-addresses-long-running-criticism-about-his-leadership-style-if-i-was-that-bad-why-am-i-talking-to-kawhi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/481817\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Paul addresses long-running criticism about his leadership style: “If I was that bad, why am I talking to Kawhi?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

While many NBA superstars have burst into the NBA and made an immediate impact with their stellar play, not everyone gets to go out on their own terms. Most simply just fade away, with most fans not even aware that they had already played their last game. As unfortunate as that is, it’s a harsh reality that most players endure in the big league, and no player knows this more than the Point God,\u00a0Chris Paul<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 6-foot court general of the highest order who played 20 seasons in the league and amassed countless individual accolades, CP was shockingly sent home by the very same franchise whose profile he helped elevate to new heights in the 2010s \u2014 the Los Angeles Clippers. He was then traded to the Toronto Raptors at the trade deadline and was subsequently waived.<\/p>\n

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Not long after, the 12-time All-Star announced he was retiring from the NBA. While the exact reason for his dismissal from the Clippers remains unknown, a popular theory is his competitive, at times abrasive, nature. He recently addressed this on the “7PM in Brooklyn” podcast, explaining that if this were the case, he wouldn’t have built good relations with the team’s stars, including Kawhi Leonard.<\/p>\n

A veteran leader<\/p>\n

Thriving in the NBA is one thing, while surviving is another. What’s remarkable about the Point God is that he was able to do both for 20 years. He says a significant reason for this is being able to adjust and adapt to any situation or locker room.<\/p>\n

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“I think for me, I’ve been in so many different locker rooms and situations, right? So you learn how to adjust and know when to say something, know when not to say something,”\u00a0CP\u00a0shared<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He added that one player he immediately connected with was the Claw. Renowned for his quiet, reserved demeanor, CP disclosed that Kawhi has a lot to say and felt confident enough to open up to him.<\/p>\n

“When that thing happened with the Clippers\u2014I mean, I don’t really talk to nobody, but I talk to Kawhi about every week. You know what I’m saying?”\u00a0he stated.\u00a0“If I was that bad, why I’m talking to Kawhi? We be talking, and he a great, great dude at that, man. Just love hoop, be working. Why we be talking all the time?”<\/p>\n

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“It was just a real interesting situation, man,”\u00a0CP stressed.<\/p>\n

Interesting is putting it lightly, as CP also divulged that he wasn’t allowed by the Clippers’ decision-makers to dispense advice to his teammates; an eyebrow-raising recommendation, considering the wealth of experience and knowledge the veteran point guard possesses.<\/p>\n

“During training camp, I talked to one of my teammates for a while, and then as soon as I went into the meal room, somebody came and told me they didn’t want me giving players advice,”\u00a0Chris\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Related: Magic Johnson recalls how Michael Ovitz became his first business mentor after doubting him: “Athletes spend more money than they make”<\/a><\/p>\n

CP wanted one last run<\/p>\n

Chris said he initially thought his stint in San Antonio would be his last in the NBA. He played 82 games for the Spurs, started every game, and averaged 8.8 points and 7.4 assists per game.<\/p>\n

“When I played in San Antonio last year\u2014and a lot of people wouldn’t notice\u2014I treated the last, like, I don’t know, month of the season when I was in San Antonio last year like that was it,”\u00a0he uttered.\u00a0“I got videos in my phone of me in my room saying, ‘Man, it’s the last game,’ right? Like all my family came into San Antonio for that, being my last game.”<\/p>\n

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However, his workouts with his son, Chris Paul Jr., during the summer convinced him that he still had plenty of gas left in the tank.<\/p>\n

“I got back home after the season, and I started working out with Little Chris, and I said, ‘Man, I’m too damn good to be retiring right now,'”\u00a0he recalled thinking.<\/p>\n

What happened next is both well-known and unfortunate. He signed on to play his farewell season with the Clippers\u2014a stint that lasted only until December, when he was sent home in the middle of the night during a road trip.<\/p>\n

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Related: \u201cIt was all these memes afterward\u201d \u2013 Chris Paul admits Steph Curry\u2019s crossover on him became one of his most iconic moments<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Feb 21, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many NBA superstars have burst into the NBA and made an immediate impact with their stellar play,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[7567,6420,209415,11653,11952,355,6999,99,17654,2970],"class_list":["post-481817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-brooklyn","tag-chris-paul","tag-harsh-reality","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-nba","tag-san-antonio","tag-sports","tag-spurs","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}