Ohm YoungmisukApr 20, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseOhm Youngmisuk has covered the Giants, Jets and the NFL since 2006. Prior to that, he covered the Nets, Knicks and the NBA for nearly a decade. He joined ESPNNewYork.com after working at the New York Daily News for almost 12 years and is a graduate of Michigan State University. Follow him on Twitter »Follow on XMultiple Authors
Windy looks back on Chris Paul’s 21 years in the NBA (2:18)Brian Windhorst joins “SportsCenter” to discuss Chris Paul’s retirement and how he could still have a future in the NBA. (2:18)
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.
“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].”
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.
“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.
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.
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.’
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.
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.”
“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.
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.
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.
“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.’
“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.