James Harden Reveals Emotions After Clippers Release Chris Paul

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Paul White | Last updated Dec 4, 2025 10:14 AM ET

There is no other way around it — this season has been a complete and utter disaster for the Los Angeles Clippers.

Any team led by a duo as good as Kawhi Leonard and James Harden comes into the year with championship hopes, but the Clippers have had to temper expectations quickly.

After starting the season 3-2, Los Angeles preceded to lose 13 of 15 games in November and now own the sixth-worst record in the NBA.

The year began with a ton of excitement after the team brought back franchise icon Chris Paul for his final season, but things went haywire with the disastrous start to the season, which resulted in the Clippers cutting ties with him.

Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul (3).Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

It was said that his leadership style clashed with head coach Tyronn Lue, and the two weren’t on speaking terms for several weeks.

Chris Paul and his leadership style clashed with the Clippers, sources tell ESPN. Paul has been vocal in holding management, coaches and players accountable, which the team felt became disruptive. Specifically: Ty Lue was not on speaking terms with Paul for several weeks.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 3, 2025

Regardless of how the two parties got to that point, it still seems like a crazy idea to cut the best player your team has ever had, and Harden let that be known.

“I’m just as confused and shocked as you guys are,” said the 11-time All-Star.

James Harden found out about the Chris Paul news just like everyone else pic.twitter.com/gTTrGAyTyU
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) December 4, 2025

Harden and Paul played together for two season with the Houston Rockets nearly 10 years ago, and the duo almost knocked off the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty.

However, they butted heads during the partnership and were separated shortly after and went their separate ways.

They seemed to put their differences to the side for their collaboration this season, but it was blown up prematurely.

Harden has also voiced his opinion on the state of the team recently, telling reporters that playing right now is, “Challenging. Situation here is difficult.”

James Harden on the challenge of integrating players the Clippers didn’t expect to rely this heavily on:

“Challenging.”

In what ways?

“Every way.”

On his floor-raising ability not being enough for this group:

“I don’t know. I don’t know… Situation here is difficult…” pic.twitter.com/x3TbIvEb0b
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) November 30, 2025

This isn’t a trade request, or even an indication that he is unhappy in Los Angeles, but he is clearly fed up with the losing, so this latest Paul fiasco probably won’t make things much better.

Luckily, the Clippers won their last game and are feeling good about themselves, but if the losing continues then the situation could become untenable.

Los Angeles has far too much talent to be underachieving the way that they are — and they are well aware of that.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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