Paul’s homecoming

Chris Paul is coming home to where basketball arguably felt most engaging to him. Nearly a decade after his last Clippers game, he returns for a final campaign in blue, red, and silver. At 40 and on a one-year deal worth $3.6 million that signifies his last hurrah, he is venturing to close the loop with resolve. The roster may be littered with marquee names — Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and Bradley Beal among them — but none can quite approximate the relationship he has with the franchise. And, certainly, it defines his aim to revisit a version of himself that once made the team relevant.

- ANTHONY L. CUAYCONG

The Clippers of the previous decade may not have produced any hardware, but make no mistake: They mattered. Paul made sure of it, orchestrating proceedings with remarkable flourish; he delivered with authority and, admittedly, abrasion that occasionally rubbed those around him the wrong way. Still, there could be no arguing with the results; under his watch, they won consistently and played memorably. Not for nothing is he still the franchise’s all-time assists leader. He set a standard, and so profound was his influence that stalwarts of the new generation live in the shadow of the potential he burgeoned. Which is why, in returning, he is both a familiar sight and a reminder of h