“Chuck, I’d hate to cut you off, man. But I’ve been in the West my whole career. The West ain’t never been easy. I don’t care who you playing, what series it is what game it is…the West always been a beast. You can’t duck nobody if you really think you wanna win it all. You gotta go through it.”
This was Chris Paul’s response when Charles Barkley attempted to intimidate Paul by mentioning his Phoenix Suns could play the defending champion Lakers in the first round of the 2021 NBA playoffs. It was a reasonable line of questioning from Sir Charles. Apart from the fact that LeBron James had never lost in the first round in his 16 career postseason trips, Barkley himself was once the best player on a Phoenix team that acquired him via offseason trade, catapulted the Suns to the top of the NBA’s standings and earned MVP consideration, only to have his title aspirations thwarted by the defending champs. Paul’s grit and fiery competitiveness was on full display–he didn’t even allow the Hall of Fame player/broadcaster to finish his question. The message was clear: no opponent was too good; no task was too tall for his Suns team if they were to be champions.
Competitiveness is a funny thing. We revere Kobe Bryant for his competitive will; “the Mamba Mentality” is less a nickname than a way of life for many players and fans. It only works though because Kobe has the hardware to back it up, even if he was blessed to combine his greatness with one of the better basketball situations of any legendary player in recent memory. Over 16 seasons, the man who once said he’d hit his momma if she were on the court playing against him has staked a reputation in league circles as one of the most competitive people in the sport. Yet far too many fans refused to buy in, as Paul hasn’t enjoyed championship-level success.
Chris Paul is more than manically competitive–Chris Paul is a winner. He’s a winner today and he was a winner 96 hours ago when he had never won the Western Conference. But after delivering a closeout performance for the ages on the road, the narrative is finally beginning to turn.
For years, I have marveled at all of the things CP3 brings to a team. My wife asked me Wednesday night, “Why is Chris Paul your guy?” The response: He’s not the biggest, the strongest, the fastest or the highest jumper, but Chris Paul still goes out and beats you with his brain every night. That, mixed with his competitive drive, leadership prowess and heart, makes him one of the great players the league has ever seen.
So much has been made of Paul’s leadership (the bubble never would’ve happened without his vision as the president of the Player’s Association), it almost does a disservice to his tangible impact on the hardwood. He ranks ninth, fifth, seventh and fifth all-time in PER, box plus/minus, VORP (value over replacement player) and win shares per 48 minutes respectively. He’s fifth all-time in assists and steals. He’s closing in on 20,000 points and has the second best assist-to-turnover ratio in NBA history among players with at least 3,000 assists.
Paul tends to save his best work for when his teams need it most. According to ESPN’s Zach Lowe, in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime when games are within five points (aka “clutch time”), CP3 holds the third-highest career field goal percentage ever among players who have taken at least 750 shots (LeBron James is first). Paul’s teams are +503 on the scoreboard in those scenarios, which ranks fourth all-time. Shrink clutch time down to three minutes and three points, and Paul’s field goal percentage is third best among players with at least 400 attempts, while his teams are +348, good for second-best ever (LeBron is first in these categories as well).
For all the flack he’s received for not being a “winner”, ample evidence suggests few players ever…EVER…have directly impacted winning more than Chris Paul. And it checks out; from his now famous jersey snitch moment, to clutch defensive plays, to creating big time shots for his teammates, to a bevy of crunch time shots of his own, when the game hangs in the balance, Paul delivers more than Amazon on Christmas Eve.
A championship this summer would cement Paul as a top 20 player of all-time. 2021 has been Paul’s greatest feat to date–mentoring a green Suns team and molding them in his image: smart, tough, protective of the basketball, solid on their defensive principles, lethal in the mid-range and excellent at late-game execution. After missing the playoffs last season, the Suns fell within a game of the NBA’s best record, with Paul laying the blueprint. The biggest difference between this season and year’s past is Chris finally being surrounded by everything he’s deserved:
- A supremely offensively skilled co-star that is never afraid of the moment.
- A Deandre at center that is willing to listen and learn.
- Multiple 3&D wings that didn’t solely specialize on one end of the floor or the other.
- A coach with enough sense to allow Chris to be Chris.
Houston had the top-end talent, but lacked the infrastructure to allow the Point God to cook. L.A. had the depth, but not the maturity to take direction from someone the other stars viewed as a contemporary. Oklahoma City had the youthful admiration of its leader, but was short on talent. The Phoenix Suns have it all.
If that weren’t enough, in a postseason ravaged by injury, the Suns have stayed reasonably healthy. Some are already discrediting Paul and the Suns’ run to the NBA Finals by pointing out the shelved stars they managed to avoid. To asterisk this team though would be to asterisk every champion–it’s impossible to reach the pinnacle without good fortune.
Sidebar: See the 2019 Raptors, the 2015 Warriors, the 2002 Lakers, the 1989 Pistons, the 1988 Lakers, to name a few.
Casting the Suns good health as serendipitous would be dishonest. Phoenix has been known to have the NBA’s premiere medical staff for years. Their health is just one of the many bricks of success they’ve constructed.
Criticism is nothing new to Paul though. He’s dedicated much of his career trying to shake the notion that, in spite of his nearly peerless crunch time performance, “CP0” is actually a playoff choke artist in disguise. In reality, poor injury luck hampered his success more than anything. But this depiction of CP3 can be traced primarily to two incidents: a blown 3-1 series lead to the Rockets in 2015 and a meltdown versus Oklahoma City in 2014.
Paul missed the first two games of the Rockets series after injuring his hamstring in Game 7 of the previous round (where he beat the buzzer and the Kawhi Leonard-led defending champion Spurs with a game-winning layup over Tim Duncan). L.A. split those games; in the remaining five contests, Paul averaged 21 and 10 on nearly 50% shooting while at less than 100%. In the infamous fourth quarter collapse in Game 6, Paul scored nine of the team’s 15 points.
Sidebar: Also in that quarter, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Jamal Crawford, Matt Barnes, Glen Davis and Spencer Hawes combined to score zero points.
In the OKC meltdown series the year prior, Chris averaged 22.5 points, 12 assists and 2.5 steals on 51% shooting and 45.5% shooting on threes. But the series was all but lost after a collection of Paul mishaps in the final 30 seconds of Game 5. Paul committed two turnovers and fouled Russell Westbrook on a three, which decided the game. The first turnover was inexcusable, but resulted in an out of bounds call that the officials appeared to get wrong even after review. Upon the inbound, Westbrook was literally not touched by Paul on his three-point attempt, but received free throws anyway. And Paul’s turnover on the final possession may have been caused by a Reggie Jackson foul that went uncalled.
Add it all up and you have far more of an officiating meltdown than anything. Still, Paul was forced to bear the brunt of this singular sequence for years. These two events unfairly defined him; only now does the slate finally appear to be wiped clean.
It’s why what took place at the Staples Center on Wednesday night felt so much like a graduation. After 16 years of struggle, missed opportunities, bad breaks, bad calls and Donald Sterling, in a bloodbath of a Western Conference, Chris Paul finally seized the moment that was always his. The palpable relief that was felt watching CP3 embrace his teammates, coaches, family, Lil Wayne, Billy Crystal and Suns/Clippers nation should serve as a lesson for hoop fans everywhere that winning your conference is in fact an accomplishment worth celebrating, regardless of the outcome in the Finals. Because making it isn’t guaranteed, even for the best of the best.
Leave it to Chris Paul to save his greatest assist for the end of his biggest game.