Chris Paul has played professional games for 18 seasons, but even he may be surprised by the NBA’s twists and turns.
Phoenix Suns reportedly made a blockbuster deal Sunday, sending Paul and Landry Sham to the Washington Wizards in exchange for star Bradley Beal. Although Paul met the Suns after the season ended and knew that a deal was possible, he apparently did not expect anything to happen when the season ended.
Paul told “Good Morning America” on Monday that he was “surprised” by the deal and discovered that he would go to the witches while flying across the country.
He’s actually on a flight to New York to participate in “Good Morning America” that was scheduled earlier so Paul could promote his new book, “Sixty One: Life Lessons from Papa, On and Off the Court.”
Late on Monday, Paul cited “another direction” that Suns’ new owners Mat Ishbia and Isiah Thomas, who said there was no role for Suns after reports emerged that the honor guard would take on the front line role “want to play.”
Paul said, “It’s just — it’s hard.” “Really, it’s part of the business, and you realize that nobody owes you anything. It doesn’t matter how you live with them or what you do, you realize that in this job, nobody owes you anything, as it should.
“But when he comes and my son sends me a message, I realize that, as you know, Mat and Isiah, I guess, they wanted to go in a different direction.”
Thomas is best known for his Detroit Pistons toy days when he was a two-time champion and a twelve-time All-Star, but he has other experiences as the head coach of the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks for five seasons combined and in the front offices of the Knicks and Toronto Raptors.
He was seen next to Ishbia during the NBA playoffs and, to hear Paul say it, seems to influence the direction of the team that now has the big three in Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Beal.
It should be noted that Ishbia told Duane Rankin of the Republic of Arizona in February that Thomas was not involved in the first seat of the team.
As far as Paul is concerned, he may not be suitable for reconstruction wizards during the next campaign.
According to Chris Haynes, Washington is “probably able to reorient” the veteran into an agreement and could eventually move him to the Los Angeles Clippers. Paul played for Los Angeles for six seasons during his career and was able to provide a veteran presence to a team with championship aspirations with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George on the wings.
He could have done the same with Durant and Booker in Phoenix, but the opportunity to add Beal, who is about eight years younger than Paul, is apparently too good to miss the main office.
Maybe it was too good for Thomas to get away with it.