Chris Paul jokes he’s a ‘burden’ on SGA, says Shai will be ‘so good’

Paul provided some insight into his relationship with the second-year guard ahead of his 10th All-Star Game appearance on Sunday evening.

The relationship between Chris Paul and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been discussed at length, but during the media session for All-Star Weekend, Paul shed some light on how he feels he’s influenced the up and coming Thunder guard.

Although Paul semi-jokingly called himself a “burden on Shai at times”, he pointed to a seemingly innocuous moment in Friday night’s Rising Stars Game that shows just how much of an impact Paul has had this season on SGA.

“It’s funny. He was in the Rookie game last night and the ball went out of bounds and he went and got the ball really quick and tried to get it to the ref to rush it up the floor because he sees me do that all the time in the regular season.”

Paul admits that some of the stuff he says to Gilgeous-Alexander, “he don’t want to hear it”, but said that SGA “is starting to see” and incorporate some of what Paul says into his game. He concluded with the statement, “Shai is going to be so good”.

Gilgeous-Alexander is coming off a 16-point performance in Team World’s 151-131 loss to Team USA in the Rising Stars Game. He will also participate in Saturday night’s Skills Challenge.

As for Paul, he added that the moment got him thinking about his previous coaches and how much of what they’ve said to him still impacts how he plays. Even if Paul and the coach reportedly didn’t get along (ahem, Doc Rivers).

“People always say me and Doc didn’t get along and all this, but there’s a lot of stuff that Doc said to me that I still use all the time. It’s like that with every one of my coaches … Skip Prosser (Paul’s head coach at Wake Forest)”.

Paul will play in his 10th All-Star Game on Sunday, his first since the 2015-16 season when he was still with the Clippers. He said being selected as an All-Star is something you “never take for granted”.

Paul is playing as a member of Team LeBron.