Chris Paul responds to Patrick Beverley calling him "a chair" on defense by pointing to his nine All-Defensive Team selections and seven First-Team honors. Paul says he waits 24-48 hours before responding to criticism and avoids posting impulsively, noting his competitive nature sometimes makes him speak the wrong way.
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So I'm gonna repeat again, 9-time All-Defense, 7 first team. That's impressive, man. When Patrick Beverley said Chris Paul is a chair.
Mm-hmm.
9-time All-Defensive team, 7 first team. When he went on ESPN and said, "We all know Chris Paul a chair." A, what's that? What was your first thought? And B, what, like, did you think about saying something about it? Did you think about, did you not see it? I know you don't look at a lot of stuff, but sometimes this stuff just make it to you because it go on group chats.
Oh, right. All the other things. It made it to me.
Like, walk me through that time.
You know, like, first and foremost, I was, you know, a pair of lips to say anything. You know what I mean? Like seriously. And I get it. I done had many a times in my career where somebody done said this or said that, you know what I mean? And I know people looking for soundbites and all this, but the work speak for itself.
Damn right.
You know what I'm saying?
So you hell boy, you hell. I just wanna know. 'Cause you know me saying that. I just wanna know.
I mean, I still compete on defense. You know what I'm saying? Every night as best as I'm probably not the defender I was some years ago. You know what I mean? But yeah, I—
Nine times.
It's soundbites.
Nah, man, I just wanted to know, you know, I never really hear you speak on anything. And when I saw that initially, so my first thought when I saw that, I'll give you the way my mind was working because at that time, I mean, I'm still like doing the podcast and TV stuff and I really love it.
Yeah.
And so when I watch these things, I'm also watching as a student, you know what I'm saying? To better myself.
Yeah.
And I be very critical of people. I think Pat is really good when he did that. I was like, whoa. Ah. I was like, damn. Like, it's so hot. And I'm like, if you actually really listen to Pat talk, he say some good shit. But I was like, ah, because when I saw that, I'm like, don't become the hot take guy. You know what I'm saying? Like, you don't want to come in so— like, he— I'm not. I feel like that was like one of the first days he came on ESPN and I was like, whoa, like you don't become the hot take guy. 'Cause I think Pat is really good. And when I saw that, it's just like, ah.
Yeah, you know, everybody has their opinion. And in the world that we in now, you know, is people gonna say something, you know what I mean? At all times. And I'm human just like anybody, you know? And I think that's the thing that I've, I always tried to do is no matter how I feel or anything like that, even though, I mean, man, you talk about it a lot of times. I know the real with a lot of situations and how it go down is you gotta give it that 24 hours or that 48 hours or whatnot. That's the hardest thing to do.
Yeah.
That's the hardest thing to do. And you know, when you let something go or whatnot, like I'm not a guy who, when something happened, I run to my phone, you know what I'm saying? And post this or post that or whatnot. You just, you stand on the work.
100%. I still remember a conversation I had with you way back in the day. We was on the phone. He was like, man, I ain't gonna celebrate when I score. I put the work in. I know I'm gonna score.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't need to celebrate. That ain't what I need to do.
That's crazy. I remember I said that 'cause I've always said I ain't like a guy that talk junk. You know what I'm saying? And you see now, like, I ain't really on that unless you on that.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? I always said, I never say nothing first.
Yeah.
You know, but in competition, I'm here. 'Cause if somebody say something, then I ain't gonna know when to stop.
Yeah.
And we gonna go wherever it got to go. That's how it used to be with me and you. That's how it used to be. But it's crazy, man. It's that competition. And when I'm playing in the game, like when I score, I go from offense to defense so fast.
Yeah.
You know what I mean? Like you even see it with the team. Like guys got celebrate, oh man, we gotta get back. They coming to try to score on us. You know what I mean? So I think, you know what I mean? In that Pat Bell situation, that's what was probably crazy in that situation in that game is after I hit that shot and the timeout happened and I was walking to the bench, everybody, of course, after the game was like, man, what'd you say to him? Man, what did you say to him?
Mm-hmm.
And I was like, I ain't say nothing. And I think that's probably the part that's the worst. You know what I mean? Is that somebody would probably rather you say something to 'em. But I remember going into that game, I was just like, man, I ain't on none of that. You know what I mean? It's just, let's win the game. Win the game.
Yep. This ain't got nothing to do with me and him.
Yeah. Let's win the game.
Nah, for sure. I definitely thought he said, I mean, thought you said something.
I ain't say nothing. Nice.
One of the things that I wanna better myself at, you know, I publicly said like, you know, you look at some things, you like, I don't like that about myself. And so for me, I think you mentioned earlier, you was like, your competitiveness is like essentially your gift and your curse. I think that for me too. But when I look at things and I say, Hmm, what can I change? Or what would I, if I could improve one thing about myself or something that I don't necessarily love about myself, it's actually one thing that I don't necessarily love it about myself, but I wouldn't trade it because it actually makes me who I am. But it gets rough sometimes.
Right.
And so I say this to you because you just really said like, I'm not gonna run and say nothing. One thing that I dislike about myself, it's kind of a love-hate thing, is I have to say something. And that's something that I'm actually working on, but like, I gotta say it. Like, I need to say it. Like, I need to get it out. At times I struggle where I'd hold things in because I need to say it so bad and I just hold it in and bite my tongue and then it come out the absolute wrong way. [LAUGHTER] Like, you know, you look at, Some of the situations I've had, some of them, KD situation for instance, like I had actually been trying to work through that thing with people, like trying to work through it. And I'm just biting my tongue, biting my tongue. You like hold this thing and you hold that thing and you bite your tongue, you bite your tongue. But I have to get things out and then it's just like, bah! And they come out, I'm like, fuck. Like that wasn't supposed to come out that way.
Right.
But I have to say, I don't love that about myself. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
