CHRIS PAUL WAS sitting inside his house in late December scrolling through nearly two decades of pictures, only briefly stopping to chat with neighbor Mookie Betts as the Los Angeles Dodgers star finished getting up shots with friends on Paul's indoor basketball court.
When Paul got back to looking at the album on his phone, the faces of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson, De'Aaron Fox, Jamal Murray, Trae Young, DeMar DeRozan, Fred VanVleet, CJ McCollum, Malik Monk, Jordan Poole, Coby White and Jared McCain pop up among the 100 NBA players who have attended one of Paul's camps, either as a camper, counselor or workout participant.
"Man, I always say the only way that I can remember anything is my photos," Paul told ESPN. "Because I feel like I do so much stuff that the only way I'll ever remember any of this stuff is [looking through my photo albums]."
The NBA's No. 2 all-time assists leader requiring a technological assist is understandable. Since 2008, Paul has mentored nearly 2,000 players through his elite basketball camp for high schoolers (Paul also has other camps and combines), his AAU team (Team CP3) and a leadership program, helping educate many of today's best on everything from reading defenses to managing finances and the pitfalls of NBA life.
The camp has helped pro scouts discover point guards such as Ja Morant, whose viral dunk with his elbows and head above the rim during the 2018 camp put him on the map before his breakout sophomore season at Murray State. It even settled debates such as the time in the summer of 2016 when future lottery picks Fox and Dennis Smith Jr. -- entering their freshman seasons at Kentucky and NC State, respectively -- raced each other.
Paul's race for an elusive championship ring came to an end when the future Hall of Fame point guard retired in February after 21 seasons. Though his farewell season with the LA Clippers ended abruptly in the middle of the night in Atlanta with a tumultuous split in early December, his fingerprints remain all over this postseason.
There are 31 players on 13 playoff teams that are connected to Paul through his camp or AAU team, including the likes of Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning Finals MVP who became Paul's teammate in Oklahoma City in 2019-20, Detroit's Cade Cunningham and Boston's Jayson Tatum, who co-hosted the Nike elite camp with Paul last summer in Las Vegas. Paul has influenced nearly two decades of point guards from Stephen Curry to Donovan Mitchell to rookie Jase Richardson, many of whom are still a part of his life, remain in touch and will be using something they learned from Paul to their advantage in the playoffs.
"That'll be a thing that people remember forever," CJ, Paul's brother and business partner, told ESPN of Paul's legacy of mentoring some of the best point guards of this generation. "Chris is going to stop playing in the NBA after this year, but he'll continue to have an AAU program and do these camps.
Warriors star point guard Stephen Curry, right, participated in Chris Paul's camp in 2008 while attending Davidson. The two later became teammates in Golden State during the 2023-24 season. John Hefti/USA TODAY Sports
ONE PHOTO PAUL can't find on this December day is of Curry from his first CP3 Elite Guard Camp in 2008. Before Curry became a superstar with the Golden State Warriors, the sweet shooter participated in Paul's first elite guard camp while at Davidson.
The two point guards also trained together the following summer -- and even found time to go to Walt Disney World while Paul was on a family vacation in Orlando, Florida -- before Curry's rookie season in Golden State in 2009.
Few have gone through the entire Paul experience like Curry, who went from mentee to rival before becoming teammates in Golden State during the 2023-24 season.
Not even Paul's future Hall of Fame court vision could have seen in 2008 that Curry would eventually become one of his biggest on-court rivals and greatest obstacles to a championship ring. The two met three times in the postseason, with Paul's Clippers beating Curry's Warriors in 2014, but Curry getting the better of Paul and the Houston Rockets in both 2018 and 2019. Paul calls the 2018 loss -- in which Golden State overcame a 3-2 deficit with the point guard missing Games 6 and 7 because of a hamstring injury -- one of the most "devastating" losses of his career.
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The possibility that he could eventually face his campers on the next level has never stopped Paul from imparting his wisdom on the younger generation.
"I'm telling them all the little nuances of how I steal the ball," the 12-time All-Star said. "How I read the pick-and-roll, how I do this, how I do that. I would show them ways that I steal the ball. And then a lot of them make it to the NBA and I try to do it to them. And they'd be like, 'Oh no! No, you told us this at camp.'
Every camp Paul and his brother, CJ, have held includes staples such as film sessions, raw and honest Q&A sessions with Paul and other pros and hands-on teaching from coaches such as longtime Denver Nuggets assistant coach John Beckett and Golden State Valkyries head coach and former Clippers assistant Natalie Nakase.
Curry, who is widely considered to be one of the nicest and most approachable superstars in sports, still remembers the lasting impression Paul left on him during that very first Paul camp in 2008, which impacts how the Warriors superstar hopes to help future stars.
"Understanding how he approached [his camp], it's informed a lot of how I run my own camp," Curry, whose Warriors lost in the play-in tournament Friday, said of his own SC30 Select basketball camp. "How engaged he was. I've seen it a lot [with] different athletes and it's not a knock, but there's a level of engagement, being there and energy that the NBA player can bring to that environment that can change the course of somebody's path.
"Just by the conversation, the competition, the opportunity to go play with [Paul] or learn from the best. That's how I've tried to approach my camps at the Curry Select Camp just because that was a big part of my journey. Learning a lot, building confidence through CP's experience."
Eventually, Paul does find a video of when Curry visited a later camp, working one-on-one with him and getting some 5-on-5 on YouTube.
"I knew about Steph because we were both from North Carolina," said Paul, who grew up in Winston-Salem while Curry grew up in Charlotte. "He could already shoot the life out the ball."
THE THUNDER CLEARED the visitors locker room after a Nov. 17 win at the Smoothie King Center, but the NBA's MVP was in no rush to leave. Gilgeous-Alexander was asked about Paul in the arena where Paul starred early in his career with the then-New Orleans Hornets, and the MVP can talk about his former teammate all day.
Gilgeous-Alexander did not attend Paul's elite camp as a camper, but he did visit one time to watch Paul work with up-and-coming point guards.
"It's really cool to just see how much he can influence a generation," Gilgeous-Alexander told ESPN. "I know for myself, growing up, he was the best point guard in the league. ... We called him 'Point God' growing up. There's so many rounds of point guards that came into the NBA and he just outlasted them all. He's nothing but remarkable, impressive and inspiring."
Gilgeous-Alexander and Paul were teammates for one season in Oklahoma City, joining the team in separate trades in the summer of 2019. Paul quickly became Gilgeous-Alexander's mentor, showing the Thunder's future superstar how to handle things off the court, how to navigate the weight room, treatment, diet and keep his body in peak shape.