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Paul, Jordan Ready To Roll

Rowan Kavner

LOS ANGELES – The smiling never seemed to cease for DeAndre Jordan, it just occurred more often when he could talk about basketball.

Whether he was grinning on his way to talk to the media as a way to deflect any awkwardness he felt from answering questions about the offseason, or, as was the case more often, grinning as a natural result of the joy he felt to be back on the court, Jordan finally seemed at ease while taking part in Team USA’s minicamp.

Relaxed, comfortable, cheery and back in his element, Jordan said it was nice to focus only on basketball after everything that got “thrown in the mix” this summer. When asked how he was feeling, practicing alongside other Olympic hopefuls, a relieved Jordan responded through that same smile.

“A lot better, man,” Jordan said.

A lengthy and dramatic offseason for Jordan culminated in a final pitch meeting with the Clippers in Houston, eventually leading to his signing back with Los Angeles. That meeting also included two teammates who were alongside Jordan at the Team USA minicamp practices, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul.

By now, everyone knows the story, which made for one of the most entertaining and interesting days ever on social media, though much of it was blown out of proportion. That’s also how Jordan felt about how his relationship with Paul had been depicted leading up to the whole saga.

“I think Chris takes a lot of unfair hits,” Jordan said. “But it is what it is. It’s the NBA, people are going to talk, and it’s a part of our lives. But at the same time, Chris has been a great teammate to me. Granted, yeah, teammates bump heads and argue, but it’s for the greater goal of the situation of what you want to do. I feel like Chris didn’t say anything, I didn’t say anything, so we both took hits, but we know what it’s like and we know what our relationship is about.”

Paul has an intensity on the court rivaled by few others, but Paul’s teammates also understand what the point guard has brought to the Clippers in his four years with the team, and they believe they’ve grown from playing with him and learning from him.

“Learned how to be a leader, things like that,” Griffin said. “He was great for me. Things kind of changed for the better when he got here. For me, it was good just to kind of switch up that atmosphere.”

Sometimes all it takes is a candid talk to clear the air. One of the advantages to the Houston meeting, which head coach Doc Rivers described as a great team-building exercise, was that players got to voice whatever they felt necessary, as well as put any rumors to bed.

If anything, Jordan said he believes everything that’s transpired this summer has led to a better relationship with Paul.

“We went through a lot of stuff this summer, things that people said that I said about him, things people say he said about me, which none of them were true, because we talked about it,” Jordan said. “People are going to try to break up things and make it bumpy, but I’m happy where I’m at. He’s my teammate.”

Paul seems just as happy about that.

“What’d Doc say at the press conference? He never left,” Paul said. “Me and DJ are actually really close.”

That’s one of the reasons Paul was among the group of Clippers in Houston at Jordan’s house to pitch the center to stay. Paul remembered the meeting – or “the event,” as he called it – as lasting about 10 or 15 minutes, with the rest of the time spent hanging out.

“The things that were said in there were things that probably needed to be said, and we moved on,” Paul said.

That’s also what Jordan hopes to do after a long summer, which included one of the most eventful and dramatic days in the history of NBA offseasons.

“Maybe it’ll be a 30-for-30 one day,” Paul joked.