Tonight the Golden State Warriors look to finish off the second night of their back-to-back and get their 2nd straight win in as many days.
And they’ll see a familiar face in Los Angeles Clippers gear, a guy they thought they had banished into the netherworlds eons sago: Clippers Chris Paul.
Chris Paul is 40 years old, averaging 3.3 points and 4.7 assists in 15.3 minutes per game for the Los Angeles Clippers. The circle has closed. The La La Land journey that began with championship dreams in 2011 has brought him right back to where it started.
Over the past decade, Chris Paul authored the most impactful mentorship chapters in modern NBA history. While he never captured that elusive championship ring, the Point God spent his twilight years building up teammates and foes to be the best version of themselves.
The evidence surrounds us. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just won his first MVP award. Victor Wembanyama has transformed into arguably the most terrifying player in basketball. Steph Curry is probably the greatest point guard of all time thanks in aprt to his lessons learned from CP3. When the history books close on CP3’s career, his mentorship will be be a tangible part of his legacy, whether as teammates he built up or the rivals he enraged until they raised their game.
The Dynasty He Accidentally Antagonized
The 2014 first-round playoff series feels like ancient history, but its ramifications echo through every Warriors championship that followed. Paul’s Clippers eliminated Golden State in seven brutal games, with CP3 using physical, handsy defense to throw off Steph Curry. Paul had exposed every weakness in Curry’s game. The physicality worked. The Clippers advanced. Mark Jackson got fired. And Paul had no idea he’d just created his own nightmare.
Because Steph Curry hit the weight room that summer and he developed next-level ball-handling. He learned to absorb contact and still make impossible shots. Then when Steve Kerr arrived and built a system that turned Curry from really good into unstoppable, CP3 got incinerated by Curry’s inferno. Marcus Thompson captured it perfectly: no opponent motivated Curry more than Paul. The standard CP3 set, the way he physically dominated that series, all of it fueled Curry’s transformation into a two-time MVP and the greatest shooter who ever lived.
By 2014-15, the power dynamic had flipped completely. Curry spent years targeting Paul for soul-snatching highlights. Sports Illustrated literally wrote “Stephen Curry has a long history of duping Chris Paul.” Lob City crumbled. The Clippers became practice dummies. And Paul watched his own creation destroy him repeatedly.
Houston: So Close It Still Hurts
CP3’s next redemption spot was Houston in 2017, finally getting that elite scorer next to him in James Harden. The 2018 Western Conference Finals remains one of basketball’s most painful what-ifs. The Rockets led 3-2, one win from the Finals. Paul hit an impossible triple and shimmied in Curry’s face in Game 5. Then his hamstring gave out.
Houston missed 27 consecutive three-pointers in Game 7. They blew double-digit leads in both elimination games. Paul tweeted “UNFINISHED BUSINESS...RUN IT BACK” like this was Rocky VI, conveniently forgetting that Finals MVP Andre Iguodala missed the Warriors’ final four games too.
The rematch came in 2019. Durant got hurt in Game 5. Houston got their chance to prove everything. Curry dropped 33 points in one of the gutsiest performances in Warriors playoff history, eliminating the Rockets on their home floor. According to reports, Paul had kicked Curry off the practice court before that game.
The Houston experiment ended and by summer 2019, the Rockets chose Russell Westbrook. The dream was dead.
Mentoring in OKC
When Paul landed in Oklahoma City, nobody expected him to stay. Nobody expected him to mentor Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Nobody expected him to lead that young Thunder team to the playoffs in 2019-20. And absolutely nobody expected that year with CP3 would become a foundational building block for OKC’s current championship contender.
But that’s exactly what happened.
SGA recently won his first MVP award, and when asked about Paul’s impact, he opened up about how transformative that mentorship was: “He was the first guy in my life that I was like close with that like achieved the things that I wanted to achieve, and I really lean on him for advice. And not only basketball advice but business advice, taking care of your body advice, like, handling a family when they don’t live with you.”
This is the part of Chris Paul’s journey that often gets overlooked in the Warriors rivalry narrative. Yes, he was a pest. Yes, he was physical to the point of being dirty at times. Yes, his teams kept falling short against Golden State’s dynasty. But the man knows basketball. He understands the craft. And he genuinely invests in younger players.
Paul provided SGA with what a crash course in being an elite guard and overall professional. The lessons went beyond basketball: how to handle time away from family, how to manage endorsements and business opportunities, how to stay focused on the task at hand while juggling the responsibilities of stardom.
Now Shai has the title and MVP trophies that eluded Paul throughout his career. SGA credited Paul as “the first guy in my life that I was like close with that like achieved the things that I wanted to achieve.” The lessons from that 2019-20 season built the foundation for everything SGA became.
Phoenix: So Close You Could Taste It
After mentoring SGA in Oklahoma City, Paul landed in Phoenix and finally reached the mountaintop. Almost.
The 2021 Finals. Chris Paul and the Suns jumped out to a 2-0 lead against the Bucks. Two wins from the championship that had haunted him for 16 years. The Point God was orchestrating at the highest level, proving all the doubters wrong at age 36.
Then Giannis Antetokounmpo happened. Milwaukee stormed back to win four straight games. Another heartbreak. Another “almost” to add to the collection.
Paul stuck around Phoenix for two more seasons, but Father Time was catching up fast. By 2022-23, he averaged a career-low 13.9 points per game. His defense declined considerably. The playoffs exposed his limitations again. The Suns waived him in June 2023, unwilling to pay $30.8 million for a diminished version of greatness.
From the Bay to the Riverwalk
Paul landed with the Warriors for 2023-24, replacing Jordan Poole in one of the strangest trades in franchise history. Golden State won 56% of their games when Paul actually played; the Chris Paul Effect remained alive even in the Bay Area. He absorbed championship culture from the franchise that had tormented him for years.
But next year in San Antonio is where the real magic happened. CP3 mentored the 7-foot-5 phenom Victor Wembanyama in his sophomore season. Wemby credits Paul with teaching pick-and-roll mastery, how to use his three-point threat as a decoy, when to attack and when to create for others.
Now, in October 2025, the results are impossible to ignore. The Spurs started 4-0, their best start since 2017-18. Wembanyama has transformed from transcendent rookie into potential MVP. What does anyone do against a 7-5 center who averages 31 points and is the best defender in the league? No one knows, because we’ve never seen this before. And Chris Paul helped create it.
The Circle Closes
Now Paul is back in Los Angeles, wearing Clippers blue, averaging career-low numbers at 40. The statistics don’t lie. Father Time remains undefeated.
But those numbers miss the larger truth entirely.
Chris Paul never became an NBA champion. That boulder kept rolling back down the mountain in increasingly cruel ways. The hamstring. The 27 missed threes. The Warriors dynasty he inadvertently helped create. Every near-miss that defined his career.
Yet in his final act, he accomplished something arguably more meaningful. He taught SGA how to be an elite point guard. He mentored Wembanyama into a player who might redefine the center position. The Point God who desperately wanted to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy instead became the teacher who showed others how to reach the summit.
Name your big. Paul has made them better for two decades. Tyson Chandler averaged a career-high 11.8 points playing with CP3. DeAndre Jordan led the league in field goal percentage for five straight seasons alongside Paul. But SGA and Wembanyama represent something different. They’re potential dynasty cornerstones who absorbed wisdom from a master and used it to reach heights Paul himself never achieved. There’s something beautifully bittersweet about that reality. For Warriors fans, it’s okay to respect this legacy while never forgetting that when it mattered most, Golden State owned him. And that unlike Paul, Steph Curry got his rings.
Some legacies are built on championships. Others are built on the champions you create. Chris Paul got the latter, even though he desperately wanted the former.
Let’s make sure he doesn’t get any championships this year either.