Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Just for full-disclosure’s sake, my man-crush on Chris Paul is already teatering on restraining order status.
But I haven’t really written about him because, really, what is there to say that hasn’t already been said?
He’s just flat-out ridiculous. As impressive as Tony Parker’s grit and quickness is out there, CP3 just looks like he’s playing a different sport from everyone else. He does things that no else is capable of doing with an ease that is simply mystifying.
He can do anything with a basketball and is in almost always in complete control. The kid freezes defenders not just with quickness (despite his abundance of it) but more so with a subtle, Barry Sanders-esque, stop-and-go stutter in his motion that literally leaves his opponent guessing at what his next action will be like they’re a World Cup goalie in a shoot-out. Sure, occassionaly they pick right and he doesn’t score or dish to an wide-open teamate at will…but overwhelmingly, the defender is just helpless.
All this would be bad enough for defenders on it’s own…but on top of that, he has one of the most creative minds the game has ever seen.
The beauty of watching basketball on TV is that you’re not on the court and caught up in the chaos, so you can sit there and see plays develop before the defenders know what’s coming. Over the years, if you watch enough ball, the patterns become ingrained and you see the game as geometric patterns of passing lanes, angles and space. And, by and large, this is all based on triangles. Meaning, a guy drives past his man and then a post defender instinctively hedges over to deter his penetration and angles are created — both to the hoop and for the pass. If there is enough space for the ball-handler to keep going, he usually does and scores. If that space is closed off — and if the offensive guys know what’s going on — space usually opens up for a dump off to the other guy. On the court, this is all somewhat chaotic and happening in fractions of a second. But from the traditional aerial cross-section view of the TV camera, you can see it develop and you usually know whether it’s going to result in a nice driving lay-up or a dump-off dunk.
But with Chris Paul, you often don’t even see anything develop before it happens. At all. He just easily goes by the guy guarding him, freezes two interior defenders and creates passing lanes that make either of the two different players open…and then he does a little half spin-dribble, stutter-step and leaves a bounce drop-pass to a third, cutting offensive player who just started slashing in from the opposite corner three-point line for a dunk. And this all happens slowly, calmly and collectedly, even though he’s twitching around and gyrating in the paint like a salmon on a river bank.
Just as we at home — and the defenders on the court — are trying to react and looking for the trianglular patterns we think he’s trying to exploit, this kid is playing with pentagons and has already created five passing lanes — any three of which will create a good look for a teammate.
It’s truly insane.
I’ve seen Magic, Zeke, Stockton, Bird, Kidd and Nash all do some pretty crazy “eyes in the back of their heads” type stuff. They always seemed to uncannily know where all nine other players on the court were at all times. They were/are all masters of space and timing and could create passing lanes out of thin air. They, too, always know where every angle is and how it’s constantly changing with every slight movement by any and every person on the court.
But with Chris Paul, you can’t get over the feeling that he knows all this…plus what the beer vendor is doing, how the air currents might be affected by the announcers talking and whether or not Byron Scott’s balls itch at any given moment.
His court awareness is just truly remarkable and his ability to create passing lanes is utterly unbelievable. He’s got pentagon vision in a triangular world.
Of course, some people think all this praise is coming too soon.
Or maybe, Chris Paul is just that good.
