Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Chris Paul is one of the fiercest competitors in NBA history. With that said, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Paul was yelling at his All-Star teammates on Sunday every time they made a mistake or didn’t play defense.
“Chris Paul is a big reason for the win,” Los Angeles Lakers and Team LeBron head coach Frank Vogel said after the All-Star game, via SB Nation.
“He told me early in the day that he wasn’t one of those vets that just likes to take a rest in a game like this, that he wants to come in and win a game and help our guys win a game. All the young guys throughout the course of the game, every time they made a mistake or didn’t play defense, he was yelling at them. So he got us — not only got us to the finish line but also provided great leadership and some big plays in that fourth quarter down the stretch.”
There’s this narrative around the league that Paul rubs teammates the wrong way because of how much he yells and demands excellence. CP3 reportedly didn’t have the best relationship with Blake Griffin and Doc Rivers on the Los Angeles Clippers. He supposedly also got into it with Houston Rockets star James Harden last season, although both guys denied anything happened.
The Thunder are grooming Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to be the new franchise point guard, but while Paul is on the roster, the two will play together in the backcourt.
SGA has already learned a lot from Paul, and the two guards have the Thunder sitting at 33-22 — which is good for sixth place in the Western Conference standings.
Chris Paul is averaging 17.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.7 assists on the season for the Thunder. He's shooting 48.5 percent from the field, 36.2 percent from beyond the arc and 89.8 percent from the free-throw line.
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