Behold: The Old Man Paul Season May Be Upon Us
Way past his prime and without a clear path to a championship, the Chris Paul narrative has gone to a potentially more somber, albeit exciting, place
For years, Chris Paul was the best there was at what he did, and now what he does isn’t very nice.
Indeed, the “Point God” and future Hall-of-Famer heads into this season with a much different set of circumstances than he’s used to. No longer at a superstar-caliber level and playing for a non-contending team, Paul’s goal of achieving championship status seems more unobtainable than ever. Truth be told, this saddens me deeply, because Paul has long been my favorite player in the NBA.
Growing up, I wasn’t really a diehard basketball fan. I lived in a household only really dedicated to baseball and the Yankees, so there wasn’t that pre-existing fandom that made it more accessible for me to get into the sport. Since my middle school classmates made it impossible for you to be cool/feel like you have value/important unless you were into all kinds of sports (I was the “weird” kid who loved Sonic the Hedgehog and Spider-Man), getting into the NBA felt like a means of survival.
It was through this endeavor that I stumbled upon Chris Paul who, at the time, had been playing for the then-New Orleans Hornets. It was actually Game 3 of the 2008 Western Conference Semi-Finals, where Paul and opposing San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker had both been having a duel for the ages. Watching the two of them go at it was like watching Anakin vs Obi-Wan from Revenge of the Sith — going shot-for-shot, play-for-play, and with an intensity like none I’d ever seen before. But there was one play, specifically, that my adolescent self truly lost it over:
It was after that play that I officially decided “That’s it, that’s him, that’s my guy,” and I’ve been a Chris Paul superfan ever since. But nowadays, Paul hardly has any of that same level of athleticism or flare. Last season, he averaged a career-low in points-per-game (15.6) and field goal percentage (41.9). Even more troubling are his issues staying healthy, now having missed 69 games over the last three seasons. It’s true, he’s gotten old.
Now, my beloved Paul’s current career situation makes him Old Man Paul, based off of Logan (which was inspired by the Old Man Logan comic series) my favorite movie of 2017. Just like in that movie, Paul has an aura about himself for this season that is of a legend way past his prime. Like Wolverine, Paul was a hero for me growing up, but he’s not the invincible force he used to be.
I expect this season to be that of a bedraggled former superstar, perhaps even crankier on the court than he’s been in years. There will probably be a litany of poor performances this season similar to that of Friday night’s game against the lowly Washington Wizards, where he only had 6 points (on 3–9 shooting), 4 assists, and 5 turnovers. It’s a depressing fate for him, but just like Logan I believe there will be some semblance of hope, and that takes shape in the form of young phenom Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The young guard made his impact on the Los Angeles Clippers last season and was the center-piece in the blockbuster trade that sent Paul George to them this past summer. Chris Paul, like Logan does with young Laura, can help to usher in the next generation with SGA. He may be a shell of his former self, and in an undesirable situation (one that he is unlikely to escape given his nearly untradeable contract), but there’s still time for him to make an impact, even if it isn’t for his particular interests.
The Thunder, thanks largely to a breakout season from SGA, will sneak into the playoffs and land at the 8-seed and face the top-seeded Houston Rockets. It is there where we will see perhaps Paul’s final act of stardom. He’ll be vintage Chris Paul, just like the one I grew up idolizing so much. He’ll have his own forest scene — a brief moment of his youth restored, delivering a 27- point/12 assist/4 steals kind of performance that, together with SGA, steals a game from the Rockets.
After that, Paul’s much younger and more vicious counterpart, Russell Westbrook, will completely dismantle him. It will be tough to watch, and it’ll probably send me into a similar frenzy of tears as Logan. It’ll be one of the final bouts from my favorite professional athlete and the one that brought me to love the game of basketball in the first place.
He might not have achieved his greater goal of achieving a championship or saving the world, but in the end making an impact — however small it may be—on the younger generation is still a legacy worth celebrating. Bring on the Old Man Paul season, I’m ready for it.
