‘Legacy’: Suns star Paul reflects on life of legend
Chris Paul tries not to think about it too much.
Understandably so.
Tuesday is the one-year anniversary of Kobe Bryant dying in a helicopter crash in California along with his daughter, Gianna, and seven others.
“Legacy,” said Paul when asked after Tuesday’s practice to reflect on the life of Bryant, who died at age 41. “It’s a lot. It’s a lot. Try not to think about it too often to tell you the truth.”
Paul competed against Bryant for years as they were in the same division in the same city with Bryant starring for the Los Angeles Lakers and Paul leading the L.A. Clippers.
“It was always surreal,” Paul said. “To know the competitor he was. For me, it’s tough because I don’t necessarily think about him being gone. Just feel like we haven’t talked in a while. It was nothing like playing against him every time because we’d be about to kill each other.”
This led to mutual respect between the two, Paul said.
“We were just competitors,” Paul said. “We approached the game like that.”
Paul also had a chance to play with him in several All-Star games and on the national team that won gold in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
“Nothing like it,” said Paul when asked about that 2008 Olympic experience as he had just finished his third NBA season. “All of us at that time, and still are, unbelievable competitors. We all teamed up and tried to bring a gold medal back to USA. We understood the responsibility.”
Team USA won a bronze in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Four years later, Paul and Bryant joined LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony to form what became known as the “Redeem Team” and win a gold medal in 2008.
“I was three years into the league and I was getting a chance to push a break with D-Wade, Kobe, Melo and LeBron on different wings and corners,” said Paul as Team USA won gold again in the 2012 Summer Olympics with him and Bryant on the squad. “Nothing like it.”
Three years later, Paul and Bryant were on the verge of becoming teammates as New Orleans Hornets had agreed to send Paul, a four-time All-Star at the time, to the Los Angeles Lakers in a three-team deal that involved the Houston Rockets.
Then NBA commissioner David Stern vetoed the deal as Dallas team owner Mark Cuban was one of those upset with the trade.
The NBA was serving as acting owner for New Orleans at the time.
Paul declined to discuss that when recently asked by ESPN’s Rachel Nichols about competing against Bryant, but did share his thoughts about it last summer on “Knuckleheads” podcast with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles.
“I was on the phone with my brother and my agent, and all that,” Paul said on the podcast. “We figuring out a plane to get to New Orleans to get us to L.A . ... Let’s just say my agent clicked over, said hold on, clicked over and then he came back on and he was like, stuttering. And we was hot. We was hot. Me and Kobe had talked, you know what I’m saying? We had talked already and all that. And it was a lot. It was a lot.”