Clippers were stuck at airport due to mechanical issues before Chris Paul release

On Sunday, Chris Paul revealed on Instagram that he and the Los Angeles Clippers were parting ways, with the team sending him home from Atlanta, where they will play on Wednesday night, back to California. The move comes amid a tumultuous season for the Clippers, who currently sit at 5-16 despite getting some strong performances from Kawhi Leonard lately.

Now, it has come to light that the Paul news occurred in the middle of the night for the Clippers, as their plane didn’t get into Atlanta until several hours after anticipated.

“Sources: Clippers were stuck at Miami airport yesterday for nearly six hours due to mechanical issues, which significantly delayed team’s arrival to Atlanta. A long travel day following another bad loss ended with teammates finding out in the middle of the night that Chris Paul was being let go,” reported NBA insider Chris Haynes on X, formerly Twitter.

The plane situation was just the latest in a slew of things that have gone wrong for the Clippers so far this season. Overall, the Los Angeles roster isn’t too far removed from the same one they had a year ago, when they won 50 games and gave the Denver Nuggets all they could handle in the first round of the playoffs.

However, things have spiraled so far for the team in 2025-26, with Leonard already having missed significant time due to injury, and the team’s trade of Norman Powell to the Miami Heat looking like an utter disaster at this point.

While one would think that the combination of Leonard and James Harden will eventually get the team playing at least average basketball, at this point, fans will have to see it to believe it.

The Clippers will hit the floor on Wednesday against the Atlanta Hawks, without Paul in the lineup, at 7:30 pm ET.

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