Chris Paul Received A Mixed Reaction From Clippers Fans During His First Game Back In Los Angeles

The NBA’s slate on Martin Luther King Day included one All-NBA player’s return to the place that he called home for six seasons. Chris Paul and the Houston Rockets traveled to Los Angeles to take on the Clippers in a game that pitted one of the best teams in the Western Conference against a squad that has to decide whether it wants to make a playoff push or blow everything up.

But despite whatever additional context there was to make this intriguing, the single thing hanging over the game was Paul’s return. Paul and the Clippers actually had a pretty clean breakup — he told the squad he was going to leave in free agency, which gave them the time to find a trade that eventually sent him to Houston.

As is usually the case, though, no one knew exactly what to expect from Clippers fans when Paul’s name was announced for pregame introductions. When the time came, the crowd didn’t seem unanimous one way or another, but plenty of people had reactions to Paul coming out.

The reaction wasn’t as down the middle once the game started, though, because after the ball was tipped, Paul went from a team legend to a guy trying to beat the Clippers. For that reason, he heard boos.

But eventually, the Clippers paid tribute to Paul with a video about his contributions to the franchise, which got him a much warmer reaction.

Paul is, in all likelihood, the most important player in Clippers history. It is cool to see that the team and its fans acknowledged him for this on Monday night, even if the reaction towards the future Hall of Fame guard wasn’t always warm.