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Russo Writes, a Substack publication
Chris Paul proves you can indeed go home again

Chris Paul proves you can indeed go home again

The 40-year-old guard is back in the city he once ruled.

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Justin Russo
Jul 29, 2025
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Russo Writes, a Substack publication
Russo Writes, a Substack publication
Chris Paul proves you can indeed go home again
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Chris Paul returned to Los Angeles after eight years. (Photo credit: Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- “If you love something,” the famous saying goes, “set it free. If it returns, it’s yours. If not, it was never meant to be.”

Eight years after he departed Los Angeles via trade, future Hall of Fame guard Chris Paul has indeed returned; to the franchise he taught how to win, to the city he made his own, and to the arena he helped make a wondrous reality.

“For most guys, I don’t care where you go, if you’ve been with a team and you’re that invested, you may go other places,” Paul said at his introductory press conference on Monday at the LA Clippers’ Intuit Dome. “But this will always be special to me.”

Paul, who has played 20 years in the NBA, will spend his 21st, and perhaps final, season playing for the franchise he’s won the most games with.

“This is one of those things that I kind of manifested for a long time,” Paul said of his return. At one point, the guard called it a “no-brainer” that he came back to Los Angeles.

When Paul arrived to the LA Clippers 14 years ago, they were an organization that had only ever had six winning seasons in their 41-year history. They were a laughingstock, the punchline to a bad joke. But Paul changed all of that.

The franchise that had never won 50 games in any season during their pre-Paul history magically did so in five of the six years that Paul orchestrated the show, falling shy of that mark only in the shortened 66-game season of 2011-12.

Even Paul’s departure during the 2017 offseason, when he requested a trade and ultimately wound up with the Houston Rockets, didn’t stop the progress the franchise had made.

“When Chris exited, we worked together. When he decided to go to Houston, Chris helped us in the sense of turning it into a sign-and-trade, and it really helped us transition,” Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said in a call with reporters last week. “The ability to get the return we got from Houston helped us get to the transition to where we’re at now.”

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