Whether it’s among opponents or teammates, beefs are common in sports. What’s rare is beef between two superstar teammates on a marquee team, because everyone knows to keep it in the house as much as possible. No team wants that level of distraction.

That said, if there’s heavy dislike between two alphas in a room, you will eventually feel the tension. Players are human too and they can only resist so much.

One of the great examples is Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. They were a premiere duo during their six seasons together with the LA Clippers, but also had growing friction behind the scenes.

Now that he’s years removed from the situation, though, Paul can see things on a bigger picture. He was a recent guest on the All The Smoke podcast, whose hosts are former Clipper teammates Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, and reflected about the beef.

“It’s seriously one of those things you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone … I think about it at times. Me and Blake Griffin absolutely had our issues here and there, but I actually appreciated Blake probably a lot more after I left … especially after when he started shooting [three-pointers].”

Chris Paul talks about Blake Griffin’s skills

Paul and Griffin, along with big man DeAndre Jordan, formed the exciting, fast-paced, high-flying Lob City crew while with the Clipps. They made the team serious title contenders for a number of seasons, but they just couldn’t get over the hump, which also felt like a curse. All of their playoff exits from 2013 to 2017 either involved bad calls on crucial situations, blowing series leads, or sudden injuries to key players.

By the 2017 off-season, the frustration and their two stars’ beef became too much for the franchise. The front office granted Paul’s request and traded him to the Houston Rockets.

Of course, it didn’t end there. In Paul’s first return to Staples Center after the trade, he and Griffin got in each other’s faces. The other guys got heated too, and it even led to the now infamous moment where Paul led his teammates to the Clippers’ locker room through a ‘secret’ tunnel.

But, as Paul mentioned, it’s all in the past and he’s only looking back on the good times of his Clipper days.

What’s also interesting is the scuffle probably led to the Clipps wanting to move on from the Lob City’s entire core. Just two weeks after the incident – and six months after he signed a five-year, $95 million extension – Griffin was sent to the Detroit Pistons. Jordan didn’t stay for long too, and signed with the Dallas Mavericks in the following off-season.

The current Clippers have since returned to being an elite squad in the NBA, as led by superstar two-way players Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The team and its fans, however, are hoping they are free from their predecessors’ misfortunes.