Chris Paul is a brilliant basketball player. He has won consistently, whether at Wake Forest, the New Orleans Hornets, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Houston Rockets, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Phoenix Suns or two tours of duty with the US Olympic team.
He’s a 12 time All Star and is a certain future Hall of Famer. He’s legitimately a great player.
He’s also, consistently, a dirty player.
Chris Paul leads the NBA - if there’s a record he probably owns it - for hitting opponents in the balls. He does dirty, underhanded things a lot. ACC fans will remember him taking down NC State’s Julius Hodge and being suspended.
Maybe it’s because he’s a little guy by NBA standards, just 6-0. Who knows why he does it? But he does, and it’s documented. You can search for Chris Paul and something like low blow or hits in the balls or just dirty player. You’ll see.
So did New Orlean’s Jose Alvarado. Alvarado, an unlikely NBA player, made it with hustle and hard work. He’s the sort of player who succeeds by being a pest. And since he recently refused to dignify Paul by saying his name, it’s safe to say they don’t like each other.
You’ll see what we mean here.
Remember the clip we linked to the other night when former Blue Devil Zion Williamson dunked at the buzzer?
Paul took the occasion to elbow Alvarado in the throat.
You can see Alvarado appealing to the officials, to no avail: despite it happening close to in front of an official, he didn’t see it and Paul got yet another dirty play to add to a vast collection.