CP3: UNIVERSAL POINT GUARD

The new NBA Players Association president is Clippers point guard Chris Paul and I couldn't think of a better choice. Check the resume: He's a dad, an all-star, an Olympic Gold Medalist and he's coachable. I once met former Lakers sharp shooter and former New Orleans Hornets head coach Byron Scott and he told me how upset Chris was when he (Scott) was fired in New Orleans. The reaction was like that of a kid who amusingly tries to stick up for his dad when pops comes home and says, "I was fired today son." CP3 was ready to make some calls to the owner, ready to protest, ready to fight for all things decent. I think Coach Scott talked him off the frontline.

But Paul seems like an extremely protective guy, someone with a high quotient for justice and someone who has decided it's too much work to try and convince people that you're something other than who you were born to be.

He's quoted on brainyquote.com as having said, "No matter where you put me, I don't care if it is North Carolina, Florida, California, New York City; I'm going to be who I am." I like this next quote even better where he's recorded saying, "I trust my wife more than I trust myself." That's a real man talkin'.

There's something about CP that makes you wanna buy a jersey. There are some people who are bigger than the sports they play, whose jersey number and last name signify something transcendent. It's like what comes to mind when you see the words Johnson in purple over #32 or Manning over #18 up in Denver. In the moments we are blessed to encounter an athlete who is both competitor and ambassador, we find it difficult to merely fanaticize toward the iconic figure; we actually desire to emulate that personified inspiration. We prescribe that emulation to ourselves, to kids, to random others. The impact of an athlete who crosses over from phenomenal performer to "leader" can never be measured. Derek Fisher is a similar case study of a clutch guy who's ethos permeated his profession. But Fisher was not in the echelon that CP3 is currently in. And that makes Chris Paul even more interesting to watch. He's about as elite as it gets and yet he says things like...

"I have a Dominique Wilkins Hawks jersey that I still wear. That's probably my favorite one. What's funny is that I spend all this time collecting jerseys, and now people are out there collecting mine."

Almost without trying, just by being himself, Paul is grounded. It just so happens that his self is a transparent, honest self. Sometimes it's hard to believe he was literally a Laker for several hours until David Stern vetoed the trade.

I keep arguing that the character driven athlete, the basketball player who is self-aware will undoubtedly outperform his deluded counterparts. And I guess that's true to a degree. But more impressive to me is when a guy like Chris Paul embraces leadership as if to say, I've been a point guard my whole life, why not assist and make plays everywhere else too.