Stephen A.: Lawrence Frank dismissing Chris Paul was 'PATHETIC, WEAK & DISRESPECTFUL' | First Take

Outlets now just over 24 hours ago in the middle of the night, the Clippers putting out a statement saying Chris Paul was being sent home from Atlanta where the team was preparing to play the Hawks. Sources told our Shams Sharania Chris Paul's leadership style was clashing with members of the Clippers and that he was also not on speaking terms with head coach Ty Lue for several weeks. Lue was asked about the situation yesterday before the Clippers win over the Hawks. Here he is.

Ty, we haven't gotten your reaction to Chris Paul and what your side of things were with Chris.

Don't have a side. I don't like it. It just didn't work out like we thought it would. And like I said, I don't like it for CP. But it just wasn't a good fit. And we understood that.

And so, like I said, it was an organization, you know, they made the choice, you know, and so moving forward, you know, we gotta see what we do. So, you know, we'll see.

Okay, that's Tyloo. Wendy, I know you've heard from others as well around that organization. After hearing everything you have heard in the last day or so, do you think them sending home CP3 is justified now?

You know, I've known Doc Rivers and Ty Lue for decades. These guys got to say what they got to say, but they both can relate to this because they were both point guards in the league. And you know, when you're a point guard, you're vocal. Chris Paul is Chris Paul.

He is going to be vocal. Over the last 20 years, you see Chris Paul in the middle of the games talking to the referees, talking to the opposing coach, talking to his coach, talking to all of his players, talking in timeouts, coming out of timeouts.

He has an opinion. By the way, most of the time, his opinion was right. He had a career where he was almost always making his team better, and he was almost always one of the best players on the court, always an all-star. He is no longer an all-star. The team that he is on, really for the first time in his career, go back and look, other than the first few years of his career,

is underachieving. His teams always made the playoffs. Maybe they didn't reach the heights that they preferred. His never on a team that was six and 15. And so when you're not playing a role on a team, a very big role, he was a DNPCD a lot, and you're being yourself like you've been for 20 years, it's not gonna work.

This is as old as time. You can't be a vocal leader if you don't have a big role in the NBA. Now I think the Clippers probably should have seen this coming a little bit more but I'm gonna be honest with you the Clippers very clearly have misjudged this entire season. This whole year is going sideways on them. Chris Paul was just one aspect of it and Chris Paul and getting his voice away was one thing they could fix. Having said this

gentlemen I think they handled this miserably. They handled this miserably, setting the expectations from the start, letting him go in the middle of a road trip. Lawrence Frank said they decided on Sunday, well then why was he in Miami on Monday?

The decision can have a reasonable answer, but the process here was atrocious and disrespectful, and I think most people would agree with that.

I think the problem is, though, and Lawrence Frank is saying that he's not making Chris Paul the scapegoat. Chris Paul ain't the problem. Your star players only played in 12 games. You didn't build a team around James Harden,

who's averaging 26, that's gonna help him win if he doesn't have his number one player in Kawhi Leonard. And when you bring on a Chris Paul, you know what you're getting right. It's not going to be like you. Donna's has them who was heat culture who would sit on the end of the bench who was respected in a certain way who understood how to work with Eric's poster and understood how to let Eric's poster have his space and they gave him his space to be him or DeAndre Jordan who we've seen been be able to like

Whether it's Denver or whether it's the New Orleans Pelicans be sort of that voice and sort of that leader that helps the young people Become who they need to be Chris Paul is gonna tell you when you're wrong He's gonna tell Ty Lou when he can say hey Ty Lou, you're not doing the right things. This isn't helping us be better. And you knew that when you signed him, and you also knew he wasn't gonna play a big role. They say with extreme talent comes extreme tolerance. I also think with extreme experience and wisdom,

you should get that tolerance. And I feel like them putting this on CP in the way that they did it was wrong of the LA Clippers. That's what this story is. Let's not get it twisted.

Chris Paul announced he was retiring.

This was going to be his last season. And we all know he ain't the CP3

of yesteryear.

We also know he's a Hall of Famer. OK. Number two all time in career assist. Number two all time in career

steals both behind John Stockton, sixth all-time in assists, tenth all-time in steals. Okay, this is who we're talking about, a member of the 75th anniversary team, okay, one of the greatest point guards to have ever played the game of basketball, easily top ten, arguably top five.

This is who he is, and oh by the way, helped resurrect the franchise when you were nothing, when you were irrelevant. No, you didn't go to the finals and all of that stuff, but Lob City with him, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan. We know what they were. They started busting the Lakers, you live and know what,

for a few years, okay? That was with CP3 there, and you treat him like this? That's the story, Wendy, what you did here. We understand everything that when he said is absolutely right overall in terms of the clip is being a mess and stuff like that. I got it. But we also know that Tyloo can coach.

All right, we don't know if Jeff Van Gundy is the right fit as an assistant there with him because Jeff Van Gundy is more of a head coach than an assistant coach and who's he's old school. So who knows but the point is Tyloo can coach, all right? We understand that. James Harden can play, other players can play. Kawhi, when he's healthy, he can play. But Lawrence Frank, this is where the story is.

Because guess what? What he did, that move was so pathetic, so weak, so disrespectful to a future Hall of Famer, who by the way, was the former president of the Players Association. You Lawrence Frank, you're an assistant. Let's go do this man's resume.

We got to call this man out. You understand? And listen, I haven't spoken to him in years. I don't dislike him. I dislike what he did here because it was very disrespectful.

And I think any player should be hesitant about going to play for Lawrence Frank after the move that he pulled here. You got a guy, you're an assistant coach, and all of a sudden, Doc Rivers brings you in as an assistant coach, and then you're getting elevated above him to president of the basketball operations,

and now you're his boss, and you lead to his exit. And oh, by the way, he's always apologetic. Yeah, it's on me, it's on me, it's on me. When other bodies fall. That's been Lawrence Frank's reputation. You trade for Paul George because you let Kawhi Leonard blackmail you into getting Paul George because otherwise he's going to go to the Lakers.

Five first round picks and two swaps. And oh, by the way, the trade involved Shea Gildas Alexander. You didn't see that coming. You want a championship for O.K. And then years later, Paul George walks out the door. You get no compensation.

You give James Harden not one, but two contracts, okay? Back to back two year deals, all right? When people question the amount of money that it was getting. You talked about Kawhi Leonard, Mr. Load Management himself.

This brother, it's news when he talks. It's news when he's healthy, because both things usually don't happen. But this brother, some way is going to play in the Olympics and Lawrence Frank said that this man we support that I'd have kidnapped Kauai Leonard and locked him in a room if I had to I'm paying you this money as much as your behind is hurt you

Ain't going no damn place near the Olympics. I wouldn't let him on a plane to France. He wouldn't have got there I'm telling you not working for me with the money I'm paying you and all the times you miss work. This man is a professional at missing work There is no one more gifted at missing work. They call it. He is special in that regard He's a Hall of Fame talent a Hall of Fame champion and a Hall of Fame at missing work I need lessons on how to miss work because this brother could give it and Lawrence Frank supports that but you go sit up there and have somebody Like CP3 who has been I mean a hall-of-fame point guard. Yes. He's gonna talk. Yes

He's gonna let you know where he's standing But at the end of the day the bottom line is this you could have pulled him in the office You knew that you was gonna do this before you left for the road trip. You could have told him to stay home with his family. You could have said, listen, we're moving on. Hey, how would you like us to handle this? We're moving on from you. We think this is the best situation.

We're moving on from you. You could have done that. You didn't do that. That's on Lawrence Frank. I'm not letting Ty L it. They got too much respect for Tyler for Tyler not to have known and because of his friendship with CP3 at least what once was a friendship.

All right combined with you being a former player and time and Tyler is a very respectful dude. You understand he's he's he's he's legit. He's authentic. He's authentic. The whole nine. Yo, you can't. You got to step to Lawrence Frank and go like, no, don't do that.

Let's wait till we get back to LA. Or let's make this decision before we go on this road trip. To sit there and send him at home, it's like, yo, he was malcontent. He was a bit truculent. He had disobeyed team rules or something, that's what you do to a player like that. That you reserved sending somebody home for that.

Not because, oh, it was a bad fit, and you're gonna send him home from the road, and he got to fly back to LA on his own, and you could have done that before you went on the road trip, you disrespected this man on purpose. Why is Lawrence Frank continuing to get away

with this kind of stuff. It's egregious and somebody needs to call him out on it because damn it He ain't been a good executive. Let's just call it what it is He ain't been a good executive period and if you got a problem with what I said Lawrence There's people Chris Wallace Ty Lou is many many guys on your organization who know my damn number even the new one that I just have Call me if you got a problem with what I said, because he can't.

He hasn't done a good job and this was disrespectful what he did to CP3.

I don't learn Wendy.

Shea, I'm in a tough spot right now because it's not the time to try to defend Lawrence Frank. I think Lawrence Frank took the blame here. I think there was a lot of people that wanted Chris Paul off the team at this point, and he came out yesterday and took the blame. And I'm not speaking about everything that's happened over the last five years, but I

do not think this was a Lawrence Frank only decision. Hold on. Hold on. I'm not implying that in no way. Am I implying that you're absolutely right? That's how Lou. I said I'm not implying that. And it's not just Tyler either. There could be others. I'm talking about how it was handled. We're not talking about CP3 being gone. I'm talking about how it was handled. Sending him home in the middle of the night.

And sending him, that's all I'm talking about. The verbiage that was, we aren't accustomed to.

CP3 is averaging three points, three assists, whatever it was. Okay, fine. It's how you did it. CP3 ain't ticked off right now because it's a bad fit and he's going home. It's that you sent him home. It's how you disrespected him, how you forgot. You talk about this man's legacy. Mello talked about that on this podcast last night.

You talk about his legacy now. This ain't about anything but that. You don't disrespect somebody that has done as much for the game of basketball as CP3 has done for the game. You don't disrespect him like that. And if you go do it, it needs to be somebody with more credentials

than Lawrence Frank. I tell you that much, you got to be kidding me. And he should be ashamed of himself. I'm serious. I'm serious.

Wendy, you want to respond?

Way to defend him, Wendy.

Wendy's like, well, I would just say that this is much. This is what Lawrence signed up for when he took this job. And yesterday he came out and said, blame me. And that is what is happening here. But I always say, I agree. The treatment of him was terrible here. Okay. Well, we know for sure the treatment of Chris Paul was unacceptable.

The Clippers have a fracture and we we know that and they are not a good basketball team.

They did win last night.

So? Okay. Okay.

Thank you.