rewrite this title How Chris Paul’s legacy is embedded in the 2026 NBA playoffs

CHRIS PAUL WAS sitting inside his house in late December scrolling through nearly two decades of pictures, only briefly stopping to chat with neighbor Mookie Betts as the Los Angeles Dodgers star finished getting up shots with friends on Paul’s indoor basketball court.

When Paul got back to looking at the album on his phone, the faces of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson, De’Aaron Fox, Jamal Murray, Trae Young, DeMar DeRozan, Fred VanVleet, CJ McCollum, Malik Monk, Jordan Poole, Coby White and Jared McCain pop up among the 100 NBA players who have attended one of Paul’s camps, either as a camper, counselor or workout participant.

“Man, I always say the only way that I can remember anything is my photos,” Paul told ESPN. “Because I feel like I do so much stuff that the only way I’ll ever remember any of this stuff is [looking through my photo albums].”

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The NBA’s No. 2 all-time assists leader requiring a technological assist is understandable. Since 2008, Paul has mentored nearly 2,000 players through his elite basketball camp for high schoolers (Paul also has other camps and combines), his AAU team (Team CP3) and a leadership program, helping educate many of today’s best on everything from reading defenses to managing finances and the pitfalls of NBA life.

The camp has helped pro scouts discover point guards such as Ja Morant, whose viral dunk with his elbows and head above the rim during the 2018 camp put him on the map before his breakout sophomore season at Murray State. It even settled debates such as the time in the summer of 2016 when future lottery picks Fox and Dennis Smith Jr. — entering their freshman seasons at Kentucky and NC State, respectively — raced each other.

Paul’s race for an elusive championship ring came to an end when the future Hall of Fame point guard retired in February after 21 seasons. Though his farewell season with the LA Clippers ended abruptly in the middle of the night in Atlanta with a tumultuous split in early December, his fingerprints remain all over this postseason.

There are 31 players on 13 playoff teams that are connected to Paul through his camp or AAU team, including the likes of Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning Finals MVP who became Paul’s teammate in Oklahoma City in 2019-20, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham and Boston’s Jayson Tatum, who co-hosted the Nike elite camp with Paul last summer in Las Vegas. Paul has influenced nearly two decades of point guards from Stephen Curry to Donovan Mitchell to rookie Jase Richardson, many of whom are still a part of his life, remain in touch and will be using something they learned from Paul to their advantage in the playoffs.

“That’ll be a thing that people remember forever,” CJ, Paul’s brother and business partner, told ESPN of Paul’s legacy of mentoring some of the best point guards of this generation. “Chris is going to stop playing in the NBA after this year, but he’ll continue to have an AAU program and do these camps.

“He’ll continue to have his input and imprint on the next generation.”

ONE PHOTO PAUL can’t find on this December day is of Curry from his first CP3 Elite Guard Camp in 2008. Before Curry became a superstar with the Golden State Warriors, the sweet shooter participated in Paul’s first elite guard camp while at Davidson.

The two point guards also trained together the following summer — and even found time to go to Walt Disney World while Paul was on a family vacation in Orlando, Florida — before Curry’s rookie season in Golden State in 2009.

Few have gone through the entire Paul experience like Curry, who went from mentee to rival before becoming teammates in Golden State during the 2023-24 season.

“That was the start of the relationship that extended into my rookie year and ever since in terms of the friendship,” Curry told ESPN of attending Paul’s camp. “He’s just a dude that loves the game, loves to give back to it, is always going out his way to give advice or be available.

“He’s impacted lives in a phenomenal way.”

Not even Paul’s future Hall of Fame court vision could have seen in 2008 that Curry would eventually become one of his biggest on-court rivals and greatest obstacles to a championship ring. The two met three times in the postseason, with Paul’s Clippers beating Curry’s Warriors in 2014, but Curry getting the better of Paul and the Houston Rockets in both 2018 and 2019. Paul calls the 2018 loss — in which Golden State overcame a 3-2 deficit with the point guard missing Games 6 and 7 because of a hamstring injury — one of the most “devastating” losses of his career.

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The possibility that he could eventually face his campers on the next level has never stopped Paul from imparting his wisdom on the younger generation.

“I’m telling them all the little nuances of how I steal the ball,” the 12-time All-Star said. “How I read the pick-and-roll, how I do this, how I do that. I would show them ways that I steal the ball. And then a lot of them make it to the NBA and I try to do it to them. And they’d be like, ‘Oh no! No, you told us this at camp.’

“They know the sweep-through, they know the jab moves and all that stuff.”

Every camp Paul and his brother, CJ, have held includes staples such as film sessions, raw and honest Q&A sessions with Paul and other pros and hands-on teaching from coaches such as longtime Denver Nuggets assistant coach John Beckett and Golden State Valkyries head coach and former Clippers assistant Natalie Nakase.

Curry, who is widely considered to be one of the nicest and most approachable superstars in sports, still remembers the lasting impression Paul left on him during that very first Paul camp in 2008, which impacts how the Warriors superstar hopes to help future stars.

“Understanding how he approached [his camp], it’s informed a lot of how I run my own camp,” Curry, whose Warriors lost in the play-in tournament Friday, said of his own SC30 Select basketball camp. “How engaged he was. I’ve seen it a lot [with] different athletes and it’s not a knock, but there’s a level of engagement, being there and energy that the NBA player can bring to that environment that can change the course of somebody’s path.

“Just by the conversation, the competition, the opportunity to go play with [Paul] or learn from the best. That’s how I’ve tried to approach my camps at the Curry Select Camp just because that was a big part of my journey. Learning a lot, building confidence through CP’s experience.”

Eventually, Paul does find a video of when Curry visited a later camp, working one-on-one with him and getting some 5-on-5 on YouTube.

“I knew about Steph because we were both from North Carolina,” said Paul, who grew up in Winston-Salem while Curry grew up in Charlotte. “He could already shoot the life out the ball.”

THE THUNDER CLEARED the visitors locker room after a Nov. 17 win at the Smoothie King Center, but the NBA’s MVP was in no rush to leave. Gilgeous-Alexander was asked about Paul in the arena where Paul starred early in his career with the then-New Orleans Hornets, and the MVP can talk about his former teammate all day.

Gilgeous-Alexander did not attend Paul’s elite camp as a camper, but he did visit one time to watch Paul work with up-and-coming point guards.

“It’s really cool to just see how much he can influence a generation,” Gilgeous-Alexander told ESPN. “I know for myself, growing up, he was the best point guard in the league. … We called him ‘Point God’ growing up. There’s so many rounds of point guards that came into the NBA and he just outlasted them all. He’s nothing but remarkable, impressive and inspiring.”

Gilgeous-Alexander and Paul were teammates for one season in Oklahoma City, joining the team in separate trades in the summer of 2019. Paul quickly became Gilgeous-Alexander’s mentor, showing the Thunder’s future superstar how to handle things off the court, how to navigate the weight room, treatment, diet and keep his body in peak shape.

“I would say more than anything, he really showed me how to be a pro,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “When he plays, he does a really good job of doing every little thing that you can to try to get an edge out there, get a win or get the better of your opponent. Whether it’s knowing the rules, knowing their plays or knowing the situation in the game, what they want to run, who they want to go to — he’s just always locked into the little things on the court that help you win. So that’s [how] he inspired me.”

Gilgeous-Alexander, who is looking to lead the Thunder back to the Finals this season after taking a 1-0 first-round series lead against the Phoenix Suns, credits those things with helping him win MVP last season. The two point guards are as close as brothers with Paul attending Game 2 of the Western Conference finals when Gilgeous-Alexander received the MVP trophy. Paul says his son, Chris Paul II, wears No. 2 like Gilgeous-Alexander does and his grandmother stays up to watch the Thunder star play.

“Shai is a huge part of my legacy,” Paul said. “But a huge part of my life at this point for how he is with my family.”

BRUNSON ATTENDED Paul’s elite camp three times, twice as a high school camper and once while starring at Villanova.

Paul knew Brunson through his father, Rick, whose final season of his nine-year playing career was Paul’s first. Years later, Rick would travel with Paul during a summer help Paul work out. Paul then met Jalen when was a junior in high school. The 6-foot Paul gravitates toward tough and stubborn point guards of similar stature like the 6-2 Brunson.

“The dog in them,” CJ said of the similarities shared between Paul and Brunson. “I just think Jalen is a smaller guard and they got to be a little dirty and nasty.

“Chris feels like if you’re small, you got to have dog in you.”

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Brunson has been picking Paul’s basketball mind for over a decade. Paul even attended the Final Four in San Antonio in 2018 when Brunson won the national championship with Villanova.

“That’s one guy who I learned a lot from,” Brunson told ESPN. “And then as I got to know him and compete against him, still learning a lot. Honestly, it is been a pleasure, playing against him and learning from him and his Hall of Fame career.”

Some of the things he picked up from Paul — like how Brunson can’t be sped up — are part of what has made Brunson so successful with the New York Knicks.

“Knowing who you are as a player and not letting anything rattle you, anything change your style, play your pace,” said Brunson, whose Knicks are up 1-0 on the Atlanta Hawks in the first round. “He was always consistent in the way he played and the way he competed, in the way he controlled the game. And I think that was very key for me and my growth as a player to learn how to do that. Watching him was a joy for sure.”

Another part of Paul’s DNA is how he rubbed opponents the wrong way trying to gain any advantage possible and how he could not care less what anyone thought of him. Paul is as competitive as any superstar of his generation and that is a quality Brunson admires.

“He’s obviously one of the greatest point guards that’s ever played,” Brunson said. “Regardless of what people say, he didn’t give a s— about what people said about him.”

IN HIGH SCHOOL, Mitchell was never invited to Paul’s elite camp.

“I wasn’t good enough,” Mitchell said. “I joke with him about that all the time.”

But Mitchell swears he might not be in the NBA if not for Paul and current Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George. While the three were together at a CAA workout during the summer of 2017, Mitchell was strongly contemplating returning to Louisville for his junior season.

“I firmly tell everybody that I was going back to school and those two guys had nothing to gain from telling me to go to the NBA,” Mitchell told ESPN. “I’m forever grateful for that conversation between them two and his brother, CJ.

“You’re taught at an early age that agents don’t want what’s best for you. So even though the person who was representing me was telling me [to go pro], I was like, I’m not listening to you. But once Chris Paul, PG and his brother said it, that’s what ultimately got me to this point. And I’m forever grateful for that because quite frankly, I’m not here if it’s not for that.”

Mitchell was drafted No. 13 by the Nuggets and traded to the Utah Jazz in 2017. The following summer, after his rookie season, Mitchell went to Paul’s camp as many pros do to work out or help campers. Mitchell says he’s a big believer in asking questions and he peppered Paul with them — something Paul encourages both at the camp and by also sharing his cellphone number with campers.

The seven-time All-Star said Paul taught him how to take care of himself physically and mentally. He also picked up some of Paul’s crafty habits, especially after his Jazz were eliminated by Paul’s Rockets in the playoffs two straight years in 2018 and 2019. Mitchell saw how Paul used pick-and-rolls to get to his preferred spots on the court.

“Every time he passes the picker on the left side, he sneaks it back to the right side and gets to that little midrange,” said Mitchell, whose Cleveland Cavaliers have a 1-0 series lead over the Toronto Raptors in the first round. “And he makes the big have to make a decision whether they want to switch or not. CP killed us with that in the playoffs [two years in a row]. That’s one thing I noticed, just being able to get to that little elbow spot where they switch or it’s a miscommunication, he gets right to his little fade.

“Seeing him do it, him telling me why he likes going to that spot and it’s like you got to find one [of your own]. Mine’s not necessarily the same spot as his. [But] whenever you need one, you know where you can go.”

WITH UNDER FIVE minutes left in an Orlando Magic 129-101 blowout win over the visiting Clippers on Nov. 20, Richardson, Orlando’s first-round pick, checked in to the game and guarded Paul.

For Richardson, this was a welcome to the NBA moment. For Paul, it was just another sign of his incredible longevity. Paul entered the league in 2005, the same year Richardson was born.

“Of course, the end of the game, I was running up the court, just shaking my head,” Paul said of seeing Richardson on the court with him. “Like, ‘I cannot believe I am playing against you.’

“It’s so wild because I’ve been at AAU tournaments watching him play.”

The 6-1 Richardson attended Paul’s elite guard camp in 2023 and is the latest camper to reach the NBA, selected No. 25 by the Magic out of Michigan State. Richardson, 20, said he has known Paul since he was about 5. His father, Jason Richardson, played against Paul 13 times in the regular season.

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“That’s really like an OG to me, like an uncle,” Jase Richardson told ESPN of Paul. “Learning from him, playing against him is really special. I think the biggest thing [he taught me] is just as a smaller guard, always think in the game. Try to be a step ahead.”

Paul scored a layup while using a screen from a teammate on the Magic rookie. Late in the game of that win, Richardson hit a 3.

The experience of playing against Paul in an NBA game is something Richardson will cherish.

“Especially with somebody who’s definitely played against my dad and me growing up watching him,” said Richardson, who is getting his first taste of the playoffs with Orlando, which took a 1-0 series lead against the top-seeded Pistons in the first round. “Being a fan of him, and then finally sharing the court with somebody like that who’s done it for so long …

“It doesn’t feel like a reality.”

The truth for Paul now is that for the first time since 2005, he has free time. His final season did not end the way it was supposed to with the club he previously spent six of his best seasons with as the pilot of Lob City. The Clippers were 5-16 when they cut ties with Paul, falling to as low as 6-21 before turning their season around and eventually trading their former franchise player to Toronto at the deadline. The Raptors later waived him and Paul announced his retirement in February.

Paul plans to spend the free time he has pouring himself into the current and future generations of point guards.

“I’m not a hoarder of information,” Paul said. “I’m so grateful to be able to enjoy the things that I have in my career. Any guy, any kid who wants to ask questions, that got aspirations, if I got anything that can help them, I’m going to let them know.

“I’m a product of all my experiences — good or bad.”