Basketball Intelligence For 2/14/26

The beauty of the NBA is found in the way a player’s individual talent can have a foundational impact on how the game is expressed. The league is a museum, the players the artists providing the works on display. And as such, exhibits come and go—some leaving more indelible impressions than others.

Chris Paul is one such artist. A player who exemplified the notion of a point guard in its truest form.

Playmaker. Defender. Competitor. Leader. Paul was the type of player that coaches loved—until they didn’t—and opponents always loathed but respected.

His career is a testament to a player whose tenacity and will to win drove him to play an astonishing 21 seasons, including all 82 games just last year—an underrated accomplishment in a career full of them, especially for a player who struggled with health issues in his early thirties.

Paul, of course, didn’t get to go out on his own terms in the way we hope for with the game’s legends, but he still gets to go out as a great.

Shuttering the exhibit the way the Clippers did felt ignominious, but it in no way tarnishes a career that deserves all the praise.

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