LOS ANGELES — Late Wednesday morning, Clippers president Lawrence Frank joined a Zoom call with reporters for yet another uncomfortable conversation. For months, the Clippers have been under siege, from accusations of cap circumvention through a shady environmental company (the team has denied any impropriety) to a 5–16 start that has flummoxed the organization . The latest melodrama: a middle-of-the-night meeting between Frank and Chris Paul that resulted in Paul being exiled months after signing a one-year contract to return.

“Essentially,” Frank said explaining the decision, “it wasn’t working out the way we had planned.”

The decision to part ways with Paul, multiple sources familiar with the situation tell Sports Illustrated , boiled down to the Clippers deciding Paul wasn’t

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