Paul, Chris

Chris Paul, in full Christopher Emmanuel Paul, byname CP3, (born May 6, 1985, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S.), American professional basketball player who became one of the premier stars of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the early 21st century. Paul’s career single-handedly gives the lie to one of basketball’s enduring myths: the pure point guard. Supposedly, the pure point is a selfless, infinitely wise player who lives to do nothing other than set up teammates to score. As adept and intuitive a playmaker as the NBA had ever seen, Paul made passes that defied comprehension while shifting around his teammates (and opponents) like a master chess player. At the same time, he scored as readily as any player in the league, whether nailing the outside jump shot with impressive accuracy or knifing his way to the basket with ease.

Paul excelled at both basketball and football as a youth but chose to stick with basketball in high school—even though, at a little over 5 feet (1.5 metres) tall as a freshman, he was considered too small to play. But Paul’s talent shone through—with a little help from a few growth spurts—and by the time he went off to play college ball at Wake Forest University, he was 6 feet (1.8 metres) tall and considered one of the top prospects in the country. Paul spent two years at Wake, showcasing both his incredible skill set and a fiery competitive streak that could get him into trouble with referees. Paul declared for the NBA draft in 2005, and he was selected fourth overall by the New Orleans Hornets. He won the Rookie of the Year award almost unanimously and, more tellingly, established himself as a leader even while a rookie. In his first professional season, the Hornets were displaced from their home arena by Hurricane Katrina and played home games at arenas around the American South instead, primarily in Oklahoma City. As a result, Paul served as something of an ambassador for New Orleans while playing through a less-than-ideal inaugural campaign.

In his third season Paul came into his own, making his first All-Star Game, contending seriously for the league’s Most Valuable Player award, and leading the Hornets to the second best record in the Western Conference. Two more strong seasons followed, even though 2009–10 saw Paul miss significant time with injuries. The Hornets, however, got worse. Though they made the playoffs in 2010–11, it was often Paul alone who kept them in those games. After the 2011 labour lockout, the Hornets needed to rebuild, and Paul was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers. The trade, though, was vetoed by the league (a controversial move, as the NBA owned the Hornets at the time because of the previous owner’s financial mismanagement). Soon thereafter Paul was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, and, upon joining the team before the 2011–12 season, he immediately turned it into one of the league’s most entertaining and dangerous teams. In 2013 he re-signed with the Clippers long-term, signaling a desire to make the team a force in the Western Conference.

Paul continued his stellar regular-season play, leading the league in assists per game in both 2013–14 and 2014–15. The Clippers were eliminated in the second round of the 2013–14 playoffs, marking the sixth time in six playoff appearances that Paul’s team had failed to advance past that round. In the 2014–15 postseason he appeared to have put his playoff demons to rest by fighting through a hamstring injury and hitting the series-winning shot against the defending champion San Antonio Spurs in the seventh game of the Clippers’ opening series. However, Los Angeles squandered a three-games-to-one series advantage in the next round and was eliminated by the Houston Rockets. Paul continued his strong play in 2015–16, but the Clippers’ season again ended in disappointment as he and fellow All-Star Blake Griffin both sustained season-ending injuries (a broken hand and quadriceps tear, respectively) in the team’s fourth playoff game, and Los Angeles was eliminated in its opening postseason series. He missed 14 games in the 2016–17 season with a torn ligament in his left thumb but still led the Clippers to 51 wins and a playoff berth. However, Griffin experienced another season-ending injury during the opening round of the postseason, and the Clippers lost a seven-game series. In the following off-season, Paul was traded to the Rockets after he made it known that he would not sign a contract extension with the Clippers in 2018.

In Houston he teamed with star shooting guard James Harden to lead the Rockets to the best record in the NBA in 2017–18 (65–17). Paul finally advanced past the second round of the playoffs that season, but an injury he sustained in the waning minutes of game five of the conference finals (a victory that put Houston up 3–2 in the series) kept him out of the remaining two contests of the series, which were both won by the Golden State Warriors. He returned in 2018–19, but advancing age and the accumulation of injuries continued to take a toll on his production, as he averaged a career-low 15.6 points per game. In the playoffs the Rockets were again eliminated by the Warriors. Having failed to defeat Golden State in the postseason two times behind the Paul-Harden duo, Houston decided to recalibrate and traded Paul to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the off-season. Paul surprisingly led a young Thunder squad to the playoffs in the 2019–20 season, but the rebuilding team decided to part ways with the expensive veteran in the following off-season and traded Paul to the Phoenix Suns. Paul’s presence energized and focused an inexperienced Suns roster, and the team surprisingly posted the second best record in the NBA during the 2020–21 season. He then earned a measure of postseason redemption by guiding Phoenix through the Western Conference playoff field to make his first career appearance in the NBA finals. There Phoenix squandered a 2–0 series lead to the Milwaukee Bucks, who won four straight games to eliminate Paul and the Suns. With that result, Paul became the first player in NBA history with four playoff losses in series in which his team had won the first two games. In October 2021 he became the first player in NBA history to accumulate 20,000 points and 10,000 assists over the course of his career.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Paul was an integral part of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic men’s U.S. basketball teams, both of which won gold medals.