Chris Paul told Los Angeles Clippers he was going to sign with Houston Rockets
By Bryan Rose
The Los Angeles Clippers seemed overly determined to bring head coach Doc Rivers to Hollywood and now we know why.
Frustrated with the Clippers inability to secure Rivers from the Boston Celtics, then free agent Chris Paul told the team he was going to sign with the Houston Rockets if they didn’t figure out a way to bring Rivers to Southern California.
Per Grantland:
"To Chris Paul, who basically told the Clippers that after they squashed the first incarnation of their Doc Rivers trade. Chris didn’t like that. He let them know he was heading to Houston to team up with Dwight. And he wasn’t kidding. For about 36 hours, Morey probably felt like all 11 guys in Ocean’s Eleven. You know what happened next: The Clippers blinked, the Doc trade got revived and finished, and the Clippers were offering Chris 107 million reasons to play for him. Crisis averted. The lesson, as always: Chris Paul runs the Clippers."
Paul decided to verbally re-up with the Clippers well before Dwight Howard made his decision (at least publicly) to leave the Lakers, so the two obviously had some type of plan to play in Houston together which faltered as Paul remained with the Clippers.
What could have been….