Chris Paul talks OKC Thunder, 10th nod, SGA at 2020 NBA All-Star interview

OKC Thunder star Chris Paul took to the podium and practice court as part of the NBA All-Star 2020 Saturday slate of events.

The stars met with the hordes of assembled press on Saturday in Chicago to conduct their individual press sessions. There were plenty of interesting sound bites with Chris Paul providing great comments about his OKC Thunder and teammates.

Paul was already front and center in the audience on Friday as he supported his young backcourt partner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. SGA said Paul was shouting out to him telling him to go for MVP and joking with him during the game. As stated yesterday, perhaps there were other vets on hand supporting their teammates, but Paul was the only one shown on the cameras. This reinforces precisely how close the off court relationship is between the pair.

As for Saturday’s events, Paul took to the podium amid the masses of reporters to answer questions.

One reporter asked him about “the haters” and CP3 gave a brilliant answer stating if you don’t have haters you’re doing something wrong. His point was if everyone loves you – then you aren’t pushing them.

Paul is one of 44 players from America invited to participate in the camp which will determine the 12 players who’ll represent the U.S. in Toyko at the Olympics. When asked about his desire to make the team (which would mark his third Olympics) the point guard stated he is very serious about making the team. Maddie Lee offers up the video footage from his response in her tweet.

Paul was also questioned about his relationship with Shai Gilgeoug-Alexander and how he has affected the youngster’s growth in terms of his mentoring of the youngster.

The vet noted how he’s probably a burden on Shai at times but he notices things that rub off on him. For example, SGA tried to get the ball quickly back in play during the Rising Stars Game and said that’s something he does all the time with the OKC Thunder.

In the next clip, Paul discusses how quickly time passes and notes being back in Oklahoma City seeing fans appear at games donning his original jersey from his first days in OKC.

He also talks about the pleasure of spending time with people who you care about and catching up with players from other teams that you have relationships with (he cites Bam Adebayo, Jason Tatum, and Devin Booker as examples).

During the practice season with Team LeBron, he spent most of the early portion of the practice talking to Kawhi Leonard. As their conversation seemed to be more than just the typical “hey how are you” chat it drew us in and I was wishing I had the ability to read lips because it did seem like the pair were having a meaningful discussion.

There was also a lot of light hearted action during the practice as Paul’s son was on hand and LeBron James was joking around with Chris Jr., Chris Sr., Russell Westbrook and other members of Team LeBron.

The big game occurs Sunday evening.