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Chris Paul

Position	Point guard
Nickname	CP3
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight	175 lb (80 kg)
Team	New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets
Nationality	United States
Born	May 6, 1985 (age 21) Winston-Salem, North Carolina
College	Wake Forest
Draft	4th overall, 2005 New Orleans Hornets
Pro career	2005–present
Awards	2005-06 NBA Rookie of the Year

Christopher Emmanuel "Chris" Paul (born May 6, 1985, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays point guard for the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets of the NBA.

Contents 1 Professional 2 High school 3 College 4 International 5 Trivia 6 All-Star Weekend 7 Notes 8 External links

Paul was selected fourth overall by the New Orleans Hornets in the first round of the 2005 NBA Draft. In his first season, he led all rookies in points, assists, steals, and minutes, garnering him the 2006 NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He was also the only unanimous selection to the 2005-06 NBA All Rookie First Team and was named Western Conference Rookie of the Month every month in the 2005-06 season. After the season, Paul won the ESPY Award for Best Breakthrough Athlete. Chris Paul recorded his first triple-double on April 2, 2006 against the Toronto Raptors with 24 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 assists. He has currently recorded 3 career triple-doubles and is averaging 16.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 8.1 assists, and 2.1 steals after 105 career games with the New Orleans Hornets. He is named to replace Steve Nash in the 2007 Playstation Skills Challenge during All-Star Weekend. On February 16, 2007, he played in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and dished out 17 assists and 9 steals, both T-Mobile Rookie Challenge records.

Paul played at West Forsyth High School, where he was a 2003 McDonald's All-American and was named North Carolina's Mr. Basketball for 2003 by the Charlotte Observer. Paul averaged 30.8 points, 8.0 assists, 5.0 rebounds, and 6.0 steals per game as a senior in leading his team to a 27-3 record and the Class 4A Eastern Regional finals. While in a game during high school, Paul scored 61 points in honor of his grandfather, who in 2002 was beaten to death in his own carport during a robbery^[1]; one point for every year his grandfather lived.¹

Paul attended Wake Forest University from 2003–2005, and played under coach Skip Prosser. Paul was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year for the 2003-04 season. He was named the 2004-05 ACC Preseason Player of the Year and Associated Press Preseason National Player of the Year, and was a consensus first-team All-American in 2005. While at Wake Forest, he tallied career totals of 948 points, 395 assists, and 160 steals.

Paul owns the all-time ACC record for freshman season steals with 84, surpassing Duke's Jason Williams' 81 in 1999-00. One of Wake's best freshmen in history, lists No. 1 among all-time Wake freshmen season leaders in steals, assists (183), three-point field goal percentage (.465) and free throw percentage (.843), ranks third in both points (460) and scoring average (14.8 ppg.) He ranked third among all-time Wake single season steals leaders, fourth in three-point field goal percentage, fifth in assists and 15th in free throw percentage.

Paul was suspended in March of 2005 for one game for throwing a punch at North Carolina State's Julius Hodge that landed below the belt in the first half of a game in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Paul has earned 10 caps for various junior national teams. Paul made his debut for the senior United States national basketball team team debut on August 4, 2006 in a friendly against Puerto Rico. Paul made the final cut and remained on the Team USA roster for the 2006 FIBA World Championship. USA finished with an 8-1 record and defeated 2004 Olympic gold medal winner Argentina for a third place finish. Chris Paul set a Team USA World Championship assist record with 44 assists, to go along with 17 steals and 9 turnovers.

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• He recently signed on to the famous Air Jordan brand, which is a subsidiary of Nike. The shoe label is headed by Michael Jordan and features prominent athletes from several different sports.
• He is nicknamed CP3, a combination of his initials and jersey number.
• He is a member of the United States national basketball team.
• He is a big fan of the Carolina Panthers and the Chicago Bulls.
• He has been compared to a young Isiah Thomas.
• He lists his heroes as the NBA legends, Michael Jordan, and Magic Johnson.
• In February 2007, he appears in a This is SportsCenter commercial as the manservant of Stuart Scott because of his "Rookie of the Year" status.

During the 2007 Las Vegas NBA All-Star Weekend Paul set two Rookie Challenge records by recording 17 assists (11 of them were registered in 11 minutes off the bench) to go along with 9 steals (he also recorded 16 points in the same game).^[2]

1. ^ http://www.dimemag.com/feature.asp?id=1905
2. ^ Lee doesn't miss from floor; sophomores drill rookies, posted Feb. 18, 2007

• ChrisPaul3.com - his official site
• NBA.com profile
• NBA.com profile
• Chris Paul NBADraft.net profile
• IGN.com: Chris Paul interview
• Official MySpace for Chris Paul

2005 NBA Draft
First Round Andrew Bogut | Marvin Williams | Deron Williams | Chris Paul | Raymond Felton | Martell Webster | Charlie Villanueva | Channing Frye | Ike Diogu | Andrew Bynum | Fran Vázquez | Yaroslav Korolev | Sean May | Rashad McCants | Antoine Wright | Joey Graham | Danny Granger | Gerald Green | Hakim Warrick | Julius Hodge | Nate Robinson | Jarrett Jack | Francisco García | Luther Head | Johan Petro | Jason Maxiell | Linas Kleiza | Ian Mahinmi | Wayne Simien | David Lee
Second Round Salim Stoudamire | Daniel Ewing | Brandon Bass | C.J. Miles | Ricky Sánchez | Ersan İlyasova | Ronny Turiaf | Travis Diener | Von Wafer | Monta Ellis | Roko Ukić | Chris Taft | Mile Ilić | Martynas Andriuškevičius | Louis Williams | Erazem Lorbek | Bracey Wright | Mickaël Gelabale | Andray Blatche | Ryan Gomes | Robert Whaley | Axel Hervelle | Orien Greene | Dijon Thompson | Lawrence Roberts | Amir Johnson | Marcin Gortat | Uroš Slokar | Cenk Akyol | Alex Acker