For three long days in July, it appeared that DeAndre Jordan had left the shores of Los Angeles for greener pastures deep in the heart of Texas. His temporary stint in a Maverick uniform opened the door for speculation about the rumored tensioned between Chris Paul and the Clippers’ bouncy big man.
At times, CP3 blurs the line between over competitive and demeaning when interacting with his teammates on the floor. Jordan running into Mark Cuban’s open arms was held as proof that Paul pushed him away. Eventually, those issues revealed themselves to be overblown. And as Paul heads into another season with title aspirations, he wants everyone to know his relationship with DeAndre is fine.
The Point God spoke with Dan Woike from the OC Register about being labeled as a bad teammate.
“There are a lot of things you can say about me or what-not, but that’s not one,” Paul said. “I’m competitive and I want to win – you can say a whole lot of stuff about me – I’m not a saint by any means.
“But that’s the one thing you cannot say.”
Paul played a large role in the pow-wow that brought Jordan back to the Clippers. They laid out all their interpersonal issues on the table and are a stronger team for it. DeAndre gave every indication that he and CP3 are just fine, too.
“I think there was forced tension from the things we all heard about each other that wasn’t true at all,” Jordan said before the preseason. “It was just the outside (perception).We never asked each other about it…”
“If I didn’t like Chris,” Jordan said frankly, “I wouldn’t have signed here.”
Both Jordan and Paul are saying all the right things and there is no reason to believe they are being dishonest. However, losing breeds contentment. It will be interesting to watch how their relationship evolves if the Clippers have another playoff meltdown.
