Ranking the 75 best players in NBA history for 75th anniversary

Ranking the 75 best players in NBA history: No. 25 – Chris Paul

Career: 2005 – present

Achievements: All-NBA (10x); All-Star (11x); All-Defense (9x); led the league in assists (4x) and steals (6x); fifth in career assists and career steals

Chris Paul is our third active player, and also the first to have neither a title or MVP award to his name. While he hasn’t hit the peak in either individual or team success, he has established himself as one of the all-time great point guards and deserves his top-25 spot for at least another year (before No. 26 passes him).

Paul’s career is a series of short periods where his game and team success look different. In New Orleans he was more active, leading the league in assists and steals combined in back-to-back seasons, which doubled as his two-best scoring seasons. He finished Top-5 in MVP voting both seasons.

Then with the LA Clippers, he was at the helm of a high-flying attack that was a perennial playoff team but never made it out of the Second Round. Then came Act 3, where Paul became the veteran wingman to a variety of younger ball-handlers. Things went well in Houston until they didn’t, but since he put together back-to-back excellent seasons in Oklahoma City and Phoenix, finally making it to the NBA Finals this past season.

Paul has some eccentricities that fans don’t like, but it’s all done in a calculated way: the foul-drawing, the charge-taking, etc. His ability to completely take over an offense and make it his is evidence of his grandmaster abilities, and his premonitional ability to predict the court around him leads to high totals of assists and steals. He still has a chance to secure that elusive championship as his prime has extended into his late-30s.