When Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Chris Paul was a senior in high school, he would head over to Wake Forest University after practice and learn the offense he was going to be running with the team as a freshman.
Jeff Battle, who was the assistant coach at Wake Forest at the time, says seeing Paul do that was “mind-boggling.”
“That’s what I’m saying, that was part of his DNA,” Battle told C.L. Brown of The Athletic. “I remember asking him that specifically, like, ‘Why are you over here every day?' He would leave their practices at his high school and come over and see us. He said, ‘Coach when I get here, I want to already know what’s going on, I don’t want to have a learning curve.'
“For a high school kid to think in terms of that was just mind-boggling to me. I knew that mentally he was ahead of most people his age already. That all goes back to his competitiveness and his winning attributes. Every now and again you come across a player that just gets it, and he just gets it.”
Chris Paul is one of the smartest players in NBA history. He's always been a player who rarely turns the ball over. The new Thunder point guard can see a play before it happens. It's why CP3 has led the NBA in assists four times in his Hall of Fame career.
The Thunder have to be excited about having Paul mentor youngster Shai Gilgeous-Alexander next season. The two guards will likely start together in the backcourt.
It's unknown how long Paul will be on the Thunder since he has a lot of money owed to him over the next couple of years. But while Paul is in OKC, Gilgeous-Alexander should be a sponge around him.
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