Chris Paul is staying in Los Angeles with a five-year, $107 million contract extension and he is excited to play for new head coach Doc Rivers and alongside Blake Griffin for his future as he tries to lead the franchise to a championship.
According to ESPN.com, Paul won't sign his contract until July 10 and he joins Griffin, who signed a five-year, $95 million extension last summer and now the team will try to build around the two of them as they move along in the future. The team is coming off of a division title and the most wins in franchise history and last year Paul scored 16.9 points, 9.7 assists and an NBA-best 2.4 steals per game. Paul played for six years with the Hornets before being dealt to the Clippers and although he missed 12 games last season, he won MVP at the All-Star game and looks healthy after the team was eliminated in the playoffs.
"I'm in. ClipperNation," Paul tweeted.
Paul will now play years for owner Donald Sterling, who has not always been the nicest man to his players. According to Deadspin.com, Sterling has had numerous issues with race over the years and one was detailed by writer Jeff Pearlman from the 1980s. While writing a book he spoke to GM Paul Phipps about an airport meeting with Rollie Massimino about taking over the head coaching job for Paul Silas.
According to the report, Sterling said: : "I wanna know why you think you can coach these niggers."
The quote: Phipps, half asleep, sat up on his bed and asked what went wrong. "Here's this guy," Massimino said, "and he has this blonde bimbo with him, they have a bottle of champagne, they're tanked. And Don looks at me and he says, 'I wanna know why you think you can coach these niggers.'"
Massimino told Phipps he began screaming at Sterling and swore he'd rather die than become coach of the Clippers. "That," said Phipps, "was life with Donald Sterling."
