**THE OPEN INVITATION** quickly turned into an expectation during Chris Paul’s only season on the Oklahoma City Thunder roster.
On off nights when the Thunder were home, the team’s players were all welcome at Paul’s place, where the future Hall of Famer lived alone while his family stayed in Los Angeles that 2019-20 season. His chef would prepare a healthy and hearty dinner -- vegan for Paul and other options for his guests -- and the players would eat and watch that night’s NBA action.
Those nights became routine for a few of the Thunder’s youngest players, including promising second-year guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and raw, undrafted rookie Luguentz Dort, the only two players remaining on Oklahoma City’s roster from that season. They’d settle into the couches, viewing one game on the big screen and another on Paul’s iPad, and soak up the wisdom of one of this generation’s smartest basketball minds.
“We’d just be chilling,” Gilgeous-Alexander told ESPN recently. “But how we used to watch the games, he was never, like, just watching them. He was always watching ‘em to learn.”
Paul also watched the games to teach. He would constantly engage his regular guests -- a group that also included then-rookie forward Darius Bazley -- in basketball banter. They’d talk about the tendencies of players they were watching. Paul would frequently focus on specific actions teams would run and discuss defensive tactics the Thunder might use against those schemes.
“It was nothing crazy, to tell you the truth,” Paul told ESPN. “It was more so just camaraderie.”
Paul’s approach -- always teaching, always talking, always challenging his teammates -- hasn’t always been well received during his 21-year NBA career. That’s part of why his planned retirement tour has been put on indefinite hold, as the LA Clippers shockingly opted to send the future Hall of Famer home last week.
But it was embraced and appreciated in Oklahoma City, where Paul helped plant some seeds that are blossoming into a potential dynasty several years later.
Lessons learned from Paul have played small roles in Gilgeous-Alexander ascending into an MVP and Dort developing into one of the league’s premier 3-and-D role players. Habits instilled by following Paul’s lead became part of the franchise’s fabric during the Thunder’s journey from a rebuilding project to a champion.
“Chris really was the first person to show me what it meant to be a professional,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He was always doing extra. It was more so off the court than on the court. It was the things you don’t think about as a kid. As a kid, you’re taught to just work super hard, but you’re not really taught nutrition and taking care of your body, getting massages, getting treatment, those type of things he was always on top of.
“He just always had a get-better mentality in every way, in every way of life.”
**EVERY TIME DORT** watches film, Paul pops into his mind. That’s because Dort still uses the iPad that Paul bought for him during their season as teammates, when a purchase that expensive would have put a significant dent in the paycheck Dort received while on a two-way contract.
“What I saw in Lu really quick was that he had the work ethic,” Paul said.
Paul wanted Dort to have the tools he needed to properly study the game, so he bought the iPad for him, as the 12-time All-Star has done for a lot of rookie teammates over the years. Paul made sure that Dort had access to Second Spectrum, a subscription service used by NBA teams, and tutored him on how to filter clips by using specific searches by play categories or statistics. And Paul often watched film with Dort, pointing out nuances he should notice and advising him on how to take notes.
“Being CP3’s rook, honestly, it was amazing, especially in the position that I was in on a two-way,” Dort told ESPN. “Obviously, Chris is Chris, and me coming out of college, I see Chris as a big superstar. So at first we didn’t have that many conversations, but as I got more with the team, we got closer and I could see what type of guy Chris really was. And he was a great dude, honestly.