The NBA is full of players who possess the gift of making others around them better. Whether discussing Steve Nash, Rajon Rondo, Jason Kidd, or Chris Paul, the NBA is chalk full of lead guards that are capable of leading a team to greatness.
But leadership is made up of several factors—many of which are not directly basketball-related.
During the 2010 season, Nash not only served up his Phoenix Suns teammates countless assists for easy buckets (11 dimes a game), he also showed them how to eat a diet conducive to enhancing their stamina and health. That year, the Suns surprised a lot of smart people and made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals when many thought they’d struggle to just make the playoffs.
Earlier this season, amidst a 37-game streak of racking up double digit assists, Rajon Rondo got himself suspended for two games because he decided to stick up for his teammate Kevin Garnett. Whatever your opinion on the polarizing Rondo—from what appeared to be a stat-stuffing, selfish brand of hoops he played with before getting hurt, to the aforementioned incident in which he escalated the situation and got himself tossed—the fact is that he was willing to put his personal accolades aside to defend a teammate.
Last season, the New York Knicks were a mess. They had a star player (Carmelo Anthony) who was redundant with the already established star player (Amare Stoudemire). Furthermore, Anthony did not like the style employed by the head coach (Mike D’Antoni) who didn’t (doesn’t) know how to coach any other style. The team was momentarily saved by Linsanity, but that quickly devolved into petty jealousy and uneven play. Jason Kidd was signed in the offseason and despite dishing out a career-worst 3.8 assists per game, has completely transformed the organization. New York is a half game out of first place in the Eastern Conference.
And then there is Paul, who is not only an all world point guard, leader, and teammate, he is also a teacher. A preacher even. One who has spread his gospel throughout the NBA.
It’s a gospel he’s been spreading like wildfire not only through his MVP-worthy play, but also through the basketball camps he hosts every year and through his contact with some of the games best and brightest up-and-coming lead guards.
But before we get to Paul, we must begin with the San Antonio Spurs.
As an organization, the Spurs are an ideal example of building a legacy that continues to expand innately throughout the league. The Spurs organization has 12 consecutive 50-win seasons that have included four championships. The Spurs organization, under the leadership of Greg Popovich, has spawned Thunder GM Sam Presti, Suns GM Lance Blanks, Hawks GM Danny Ferry, former Lakers/Cavs head coach Mike Brown, current Clippers head coach Vinnie Del Negro, former Nets/Mavs coach Avery Johnson, as well as the GM/coach duo in New Orleans of Dell Demps and Monty Williams.
It’s a culture that has flourished. Just look at the results. The Cavs went to the NBA finals under Brown, so too did the Mavericks under Avery Johnson. The Thunder and Clippers (pre-Paul injury) are two of the best teams in the West—right there with San Antonio who is riding a 10-game win streak. The Hawks remade themselves with the Joe Johnson trade and got significantly under the cap to be major players in free agency this summer. And now that they have a fully healthy squad, the Hornets have shown glimmers of a team with a bright future.
This legacy of teaching others has in turn influenced the players that have played in silver and black.
Coming into the league, Tony Parker was a cocky, undisciplined 18-year-old finesse player who had to learn a lot of hard lessons under the hamfisted tutelage of Popovich. But he learned. He then excelled, helping the Spurs win three championships while taking home one Finals MVP.
Today, despite an embarrassing lack of publicity (shame on ESPN, Yahoo, and CBS for their lack of coverage), Parker is currently the best player on the Association’s best team. The NBA acknowledged this by awarding him January’s Western Conference player of the month.
Parker is one of Paul’s closest friends in the NBA and was one of the many people who helped mentor Paul when he first got into the league.
There have been plenty of others Paul has credited along his journey—his father, his older brother CJ, Chauncey Billups, his coach Skip Prosser at Wake Forest, Byron Scott—but I bring up Parker because the two have never played together. It’s one thing to mentor somebody you’re playing with. It’s quite another to go out of your way to give advice to someone you’ll be playing against.
It was Parker who reached out to Paul, and it is the Spurs culture that had a great deal to do with Parker reaching out in the first place.
Paul has continued that trend.
And it is this trend, and the players that Paul has reached out to and mentored, that we will be focusing on in a weekly feature I’m calling: Chris Paul’s Disciples.
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