Normally something like this would just go in the news section, but it’s such a must read for Hornets fans that it’s going right here instead. It’s titled “You All Lost Your Minds. Let Me Help You Find Them.” Enjoy.
With the emergence of Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose last season, the influx of insanely talented rookie point guards and the dominating nature of Deron Williams, we all seemed to forget about Chris Paul. A big part of this was due to injuries. He hurt his knee and it kept him out of almost half the games. Then Darren Collison became a fantasy basketball sensation, which caused everybody to lose their collective bowels and start wondering if the Hornets even needed Chris Paul. Deron Williams exploded at the end of the regular season, threw up some absurd performances in the playoffs and all of a sudden experts and pundits are proclaiming him to be hands down the best point guard in the NBA.
ARE YOU PEOPLE OUT OF YOUR F***ING MINDS?!?
This is CHRIS PAUL!
CHRIS F’ING PAUL!
How did this happen? How did we move on so quickly to the latest fad when the best product on the market is still kicking ass and handing out career years to his teammates?
All he did was injure his knee. He didn’t Greg Oden his knee. He didn’t Shaun Livingston his knee. He didn’t have Big Baby fall into it like an inebriated seal and Joe Theisman his knee. He tore the meniscus in his knee and you all decided to write his obituary and send him off on some slab of glacier to the cold Icelandic waters?
Read the rest at Hardwood Paroxysm, an awesome part of the TrueHoop Network.
36 responses to “Zach Harper’s Article on Chris Paul”
Yeah, to me, it is not even close.
Casual fans will discuss Rondo’s assist numbers or talk about D-Will’s size. Blah blah, whatever.
3 minutes in the game, score tied- who do you want leading your team?
Go watch Boston at Dallas from the other night. The game was in the balance and Rondo didnt know what to do. Dallas left him alone for a 3 even though they were only up 2 and he clanked it. Could you EVER imagine a defense just leaving CP3?
Stats, vertical jump, highlight dunks- he might not win in all those categories, but that guy has a winning chromosome that no other PG in the league possesses, and in all honesty, is only topped by Kobe.
Haha, that D-West quote made me laugh. That piece was ironically very well written. Hard not to get pumped about it. Darth Paul and Point God were great nicknames too. The nerd in me is biased towards the former. BTW, on espn.com’s SportsNation today, they had a poll up asking whether or not the Hornets were for real. Only one state said “no” and, honestly, I don’t even need to tell you which state it was. (Hint: It pertains to the CP3 article)
I like the attitude and he’s right.
Chris is a country boy. He may have grown up in a semi-urban area, but it wasn’t one of these micro-planets like New York. Chris is a simple guy and relies on his actions. The dude is always `present’ when he’s playing. He is laser focused. And when the smack is being talked he’s just sitting there waiting to lay it down and walk off BECAUSE YOU DON’T MATTER. Ball . . . Hoop . . . Ball . . . Hoop.
He’s not going to address rumors he didn’t start or comments about his ability when he can’t, at that moment, back up his retort with action. He’s likewise not going to apologize for feelings he didn’t hurt. I totally get that. I’ve done that, frankly, to my detriment in some regards, but I have my pride and self-respect and the perpetrators don’t have the satisfaction. I often don’t do X to make you happy because that isn’t my job. I get flak, but I’m not wasting my time, and my time is really all I have.
On a related note: If New Orleans is winning he won’t allow himself to leave. If he wanted to leave, don’t you think he could, I don’t know, NOT GO WIN THE DAMNED GAME. Yeah, in theory; in practice, he’s incapable. I said it before and I’ll say it again: His momma raised him right.
He’ll chase the wins, not the bright lights, and more power to the little dude.
Chris paul is the reason why NOH is doing so well. Too bad the Hornets won’t be able to keep as they cannot even get people to fill up their arena
Do you want Chris Paul on your favorite team? Is that it? Come on. You can tell us.
That is exactly why LeBron left Cleveland, after all. Attendance.
After all, last year Cleveland only averaged 20,562 per game at home which only good for second behind Chicago’s 20,725 and their winning ways. To add insult to injury, they were only second in the league when away at 19,200 compared to the Lakers’ lofty 19,265. Can you imagine. Ignore that more human meat saw them play with an overall average 19,881 per game.
That’s why the Heat got LeBron etc. too. Being 15th out of 30 in attendance last year, averaging 17,730 per game was the major selling point, of course. Not selling out any of your games this season either . . . they are going to have trouble getting LeBron to retire in 20 years with those sorts of numbers. You gotta figure that the home average of 19,600, less than he had around him in Cleveland all while not sold out, so far this year is really making him happy. After all Cleveland is only pulling is 20,562 (same as last year) where as Miami has picked up almost 2,000 seats. Before LeBron pulled in over 20,000 and now he and Bosh together pulled in . . . 2,000. Yeah, they’re thrilled. Riley really knows what people want. And build winners. 5-3, best NBA record ever.
Yeah, attendance has a big affect on people coming to games and not the other way around.
Oh, well, I’m off to hop on my cart and let the horse push me up the hill to my house so I can sit and wait for cancer to cause me to smoke.
LOL 42!
“Chris Paul killed James Jones with that crossover. He’s dead now. It doesn’t matter there was a charge called inexplicably after he killed James Jones. All that matters is that James’ will and testament get doled out properly.”
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!
“..or wish Deron Williams would stop going to Supercuts to get his hair did.”
LMAO!
He missed 37 games last season. You can’t be crowned the best in the league playing 0 minutes. And they questioned needing Chris Paul not because Collison could replace CP (no one can), but rather we could get more in a trade with CP than anyone else and still have a very good 1.
That said, this season so far is just a reminder to the fickle world of sports that New Orleans houses one of the best player in the league, if not the best.
This is 100% truth juice. Most efficient PG in the NBA
Great article. Here’s an excerpt from Shoals on Paul from Fanhouse the other day:
“What Chris Paul was working on — never really stopped, actually — was a level of play at his position that few, before or since, have matched. More than anyone besides Steve Nash, Paul has become a symbol of the newfound importance of the PG. To watch him play is, undeniably, to take in the work of a master. We can pretty comfortably say that Paul, like Tim Duncan or the mature Kobe Bryant, has put it all together in a way few athletes ever do. ”
http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/11/09/the-works-chris-paul-lebron-james-legacies-under-fire-art-o/
“I saw David West show on a screen the other day on defense and it felt like I just saw Haley’s Comet come chill out in my living room.†Haha great article.
Chris Paul tweet:
“Good win for us again 2nite…gr8 not to have to play the 4th…crowds have been good but can be A LOT better, plz N.O come out 4 us…7-0!”
I agree with him. The crowds have been pathetic. I bet it wasn’t half full opening night. Reminds me of 07-08 when people didn’t start showing up until after the all star break. Come on folks, bring a friend!
Over 15k, with a sellout being about 17k.
You would lose the bet.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=301027003
Yeah, but I wonder if that’s actual attendance or tickets sold? The Heat game was “sold out” but there were a good many empty seats. I understand that looks can be deceiving, but I’ve been at every home game except the Nuggets (voodoo fest) and there’s no way the arena’s been consistently at 81% capacity (15k attendance/18.5k capacity). No way bro. Read Chris’s tweet, he’s got eyes, too. I imagine if you asked him if the arena was 81% full on opening night, he’d look at you and laugh.
After I wrote the above, I did a little research. The NBA uses “the number of tickets distributed, adding complimentary tickets — for players’ families, league officials, sponsors and such — to the number of tickets sold.”
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-attendance-082305,0,3422667.story
There you go.
Here’s another example from when hornets were in OKC:
“The Hornets had an average posted attendance of 17,833 this season at the 19,163-seat Ford Center, but the filing shows that the average drop count, or actual turnstile count, was 13,269, or 74 percent of the reported average attendance.”
Assuming 74% is a good number, which I assume it is for the purposes of this argument, that means there were about 11k people in the stands that night (74% of 15k). That means there were 7500 empty seats that night, and that number is much more believable, although it still seems low to me.
Thank you for explicitly pointing out all the fluff in the numbers that others may be less familar with and calculating a resonable total well above half-capacity, which was your bet. And, as the comparison shows, you lost the bet.
I’m glad we agree, bro.
Jeez man, what’s with the hostility? I was being facetious when I said half full. I was only trying to mirror Chris’s tweet, drum up support, and get butts in the seats. You obviously haven’t been to any games though, or I think you’d agree with me and Chris. Crowds have been sub-par at best.
I’ve been to every game and have 4 tickets.
There is no hostility. If you think this is hostile, I’m sorry, but you just aren’t calibrated to deal with me. No biggie. But for reference, I’m not being hostile and I’m sorry if it came off that way.
I’m a scientific guy and when numbers are in play, I like data. Citations.
I would say your definition of par needs some adjustment.
I did ask a rep and the tweet has NOT affected ticket sales in their opinion. They fully expect it to be another month, just as we’ve been saying for a bit here. The crowds are less than what some want, but in line with expectations, if not ahead.
I’m all for drumming up support. As I said, I have 4 seats. I make little packages for folks at work and with friends and get people to the game that wouldn’t normally go, at least at first. A couple have started doing their own tickets. I’m working on a couple ideas to get some larger groups in. It’d be bice to get some good ideas in the pot, cook ’em down, and execute a good plan.
Whatcha got?
Didn’t we discuss this in another thread already?
The Hornets list a sellout at 17,188. 18K is standing room only.
I just used 18.5k since that’s the published capacity.
This thread is to talk about the awesomeness that is Chris Paul, not attendance. Yall are ruining this for me. Take that attendance talk to the other thread (Hornets Dominate Clippers). Please.
I thought it was relevant since it came from the horse’s … er… twitter.
More relevant in the other thread.
🙂
Chris Paul is awesome.
Well the attendance thing isnt going to get that much better in the short run. Folks dont exactly have a whole lot of pocket change and the perception of the cost of a Hornets game exceeds the actual cost. It doesnt help that the big games (Heat, Lakers, Celtics) have a larger ticket price than say the Clippers. Unless folks know that most games can be gotten into for about the price of a movie ticket they arent going to commit to the “lesser” games.
Oh and I think Chris Paul is Awesomer than 42 does!
Attendance around here doesn’t normally pick up until after Christmas. I guess we’ll have to wait until Friday Night football and all that stuff is over with. It’s basically the same every year.
And oh yeah, CP3 is pretty awesome.
Will Chris Paul bring his talents to London for the 2012 Olympics?
Yes, according to comments he madenin an article in the News section in the last week or so.
Hornets pick up Bosh and Iggy? WOW!
http://hoopstopia.com/?p=211
just put lebrons men on against boston.
RONDO just turned down an elbow jumpshot with 3 on the shotclock only to throw up a fallaway running hook from about 17.
and despite that nasty dunk, has missed a handful of unmarked jumpers