Christopher Emmanuel Paul is an American professional basketball player who plays point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association. Paul is widely considered to be one of the best leaders in the history of the NBA, with his ability to make his teammates better making him valuable along with his ability to do anything that is needed of him individually.
Chris Paul played his high school basketball at West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, North Carolina. Over his final two seasons, he averaged over 25 points per game, including a senior year that saw him put up over 30 points per contest en route to McDonald’s All-American honors. His most notable accomplishment during his high school career was scoring 61 points in a game, missing a free throw to keep his point total at 61 in memory of his grandfather, who died at 61 years of age.
Chris Paul played at Wake Forest for his college basketball career. He made an immediate impact, winning ACC rookie of the year honors and helping Wake Forest get to the Sweet Sixteen, where they fell to St. Joseph’s.
In Paul’s second season with the Demon Deacons, the team was ranked number one in the nation for a period of time, the first time Wake Forest reached that ranking in school history. Paul was a first-team all-American, averaging over 15 points per game on the season, with Wake Forest getting knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by West Virginia in the second round. After the season, he declared for the NBA Draft.
Chris Paul was drafted fourth overall in the 2005 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets, who are now known as the Pelicans. He made an immediate impact in the pros, coming one first-place vote away from winning the NBA Rookie of the Year vote unanimously. He became a Western Conference All-Star Game participant for the first time in 2008, in his third season in the league. And while Paul continued to improve, the Hornets were not making progress in the hunt for an NBA championship. Instead of losing Paul via free agency, he was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers after a trade to the Lakers was vetoed by the league.
Paul was sent to the Clippers in 2011 for multiple draft picks and players and was the ideal distributor to join Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan in Los Angeles. Known as Lob City, thanks to Paul’s ability to find the two on alley-oops, the Clippers were fixtures in the playoffs during Paul’s time there.
Despite all of the regular season success for the Clippers, though, they failed to cash in during the postseason. Paul and the rest of the team could not get by the Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers in different seasons to keep them out of the conference finals and NBA Finals.
In 2017, Paul was traded to the Rockets in exchange for a package of seven players, highlighted by Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley. The trade allowed Paul to pair up with James Harden, arguably the best NBA player at putting the ball in the basket of his generation. In the 2018 postseason, the Rockets were the top seed in the West and beat the Jazz in the conference semifinals. In the conference finals, against the Golden State Warriors, Paul suffered a hamstring injury and the Rockets blew a 3-2 series lead.
In the summer of 2019, Paul was sent to Oklahoma City to join the Thunder, in exchange for former MVP Russell Westbrook. Paul led the Thunder to a surprisingly strong season before the 2019-2020 season was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Paul has also represented the United States in the Olympic Games and FIBA world championship in his career. He helped the US to a bronze medal in the 2006 world championships, along with the gold medal in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Chris Paul signed a four year, $159 million contract extension with the Houston Rockets in 2018. After his current contract has run its course, Paul will have earned over $340 million on his NBA contracts.
Paul has an estimated net worth of over $120 million, thanks to his NBA income along with endorsements that include State Farm, Nike and Tissot.
Chris Paul was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Chris Paul and Robin Jones. Paul has an older brother named Charles. He married Jada Crawley in 2011, with whom he has one son named Chris and one daughter named Camryn.
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