I recently wrote about my renewed interest in the NBA. I have been impressed with one player in particular and that is Chris Paul. Because he went to school at Wake Forest, one of Duke’s rivals, and his use of Julius Hodge’s groin as a punching bag, I never took the time to appreciate him or his game. What I would have seen was the most dominant point guard since Isaiah Thomas, a player who could score his points but gets his teammates involved first. A point guards’ learning curve in the NBA is somewhat similar to an NFL quarterbacks but Paul made an immediate impact on a team that was floundering after moving from Charlotte and a city that was dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Paul is also one of the good guys, a fierce competitor on the court but a great role model off the court. He grew up in Winston Salem, NC and decided to stay there and play at Wake Forest to be close to his family, especially his grandfather. Paul’s grandfather was killed when he was 61 during a robbery attempt. In Chris’s next game which was a state basketball tournament he scored 61 points in honor of his grandfather. I am sure his grandfather is proud at how Chris has conducted himself on and off the court (save for the Hodges incident).
Paul won the Rookie of the Year award in 2006 and many analysts are now wondering why he was taken 4th the year he was drafted. One of Paul’s rookie classmates, Deron Williams, has also had a great start to his career. Williams was the 3rd pick in Paul’s draft and the rivalry between these two is going to be a joy to watch for the next 10 years.
In the play-offs Paul has taken his game to another level. A friend and I thought there was no way that New Orleans was going to beat Dallas. Dallas had to much experience and the Hornets did not have enough of it. Even experts felt the same way about the series but New Orleans and Paul had other ideas and beat Dallas in 5 games and after the series Dallas coach Avery Johnson was fired. Next up for the Hornets were the San Antonio Spurs.
Another team with loads of experience, 4 titles and Tim Duncan. Again many thought that New Orleans would not pose much of a challenge to the Spurs and again the Hornets are proving the experts wrong. In the first two game Paul has performed brilliantly and has shown that Tony Parker is a liability on defense (he’s French what do you expect). New Orleans has also made San Antonio look old, Paul is able to do anything he wants with the ball and he has great finishers in David West and Tyson Chandler and can kick it out to Peja Stojaković for the three in the corner. Paul’s assist to turnover ratio in the play-offs is sick, 12 assist for every 1.2 turnovers. May explain why New Orleans has been tough to beat so far.
Game 3 against the Spurs is tonight in San Antonio. I have a feeling that the refs will give the Spurs every opportunity to win the 3 games at home but I think New Orleans wins one of the games in San Antonio and clinches the series at home in Game 6. This would set up a tremendous conference final against the Lakers and Kobe Bryant the league’s MVP.
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