Inside the ugly Chris Paul-LA Clippers divorce - ESPN

THE WIRELESS INTERNET worked well on the private plane Chris Paul flew in from Atlanta to Los Angeles the morning after he was unceremoniously sent home and into an uncertain basketball future.

Only a few hours had passed since LA Clippers president Lawrence Frank informed Paul that the organization was parting ways with the best player in franchise history — just 21 games into what was supposed to be a karmically and narratively pleasing retirement tour.

Instead, the season had devolved into disaster, for the 40-year-old future Hall of Fame point guard and for the team. LA was 5-16 and 14th in the Western Conference.

Confusion bubbled across the league. What was so bad that the Clippers needed to urgently send Paul home from a road trip in the middle of the night? What had gone so wrong so quickly that the team couldn't wait one more week to make this move at home?

The move bewildered many in the NBA, including a man Paul had barely spoken to since the two led the Lob City Clippers, an era that had ended in 2017.

Blake Griffin's relationship with Paul was frosty at the best of times. But over the past few years there had been signs of it thawing. Nice comments about each other through the media. Griffin even contributed to a tribute video when Paul moved up to second on the NBA's career assists leaderboard last season.

Griffin sent a text to Paul that morning as he flew home. He knew he might be the only person who could really understand what Paul had experienced: a cold dismissal by a franchise that had once celebrated him too.

Paul called Griffin as soon as his plane landed. Via FaceTime, they added the third co-star of Lob City, DeAndre Jordan.

It marked the first time the three had been together in eight years, not