Top 10 NBA players all-time who lack a major fan base

6. Chris Paul

Here is my foresight on Chris Paul’s career. He will play for one or two more teams, retire ringless and much later be long-underrated on many all-time lists for decades. But if this 2019-20 season has taught us anything, it should be to never rule out Chris Paul.

Six long seasons on the Hornets/Pelicans, 18.5 points a game, 9.5 assists and was second in MVP voting in 2008. Fun fact: Three players on the starting five of that historic 2008 season are now champions.

Does this mean something? No, not really.

But this will be the type of ignorant things said by future generations looking back at Paul’s hornets years. He goes to the LA Clippers and creates Lob City, and after years of setting franchise records in wins and points, 2015 looks like the year they finally make the finals. But he gets injured and loses to the Houston Rockets. The same goes for 2016 but with the Portland Trail Blazers.

He leaves the Clippers and all that help he needed in LA, and things turn sour the moment Paul leaves. Goes to Rockets, they’re up 3-2 against arguably the best team in NBA history in the mighty Golden State Warriors, but Paul gets injured and again the team collapses without him.

He gets shipped to the Oklahoma City Thunder, nobody has them making the playoffs but he takes them to the fifth seed. I don’t like ‘what ifs’ in sports discussions as much as the next guy. But I really believe if you could redo Chris Paul’s career 20 times, this reality saw the most unlucky and worst version.

He would have been remembered as the greatest Clipper ever, but when the NBA playoffs kick off at the end of July, Kawhi Leonard might steal that title.