Chris Paul 's status as one of the best point guards in NBA history is beyond reproach. From being named an All-Star 12 times to earning All-NBA Team honors 11 times to making it to the league's All-Defensive Team a whopping nine times, outside of winning an NBA title, CP did it all in his illustrious 21-year career.
His reputation, on the other hand, is a whole different story. As his unceremonious exit from the NBA showed, the former Wake Forest stud had rubbed so many people the wrong way that nobody in the Los Angeles Clippers' organization batted an eyelash when he was sent away from the team in the middle of the night during a road trip in Atlanta last season.
To make matters worse, that happened during his farewell season, thus denying him the curtain call that he so richly deserved. But that was CP; he was so brilliant and fierce as a competitor that he didn't mind playing the villain role so long as he accomplished his goals.
One person who felt the Point God's wrath was JJ Redick . With a rivalry that began in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in the NCAA and carried over to the pros, Redick recalled how Paul needled him during the early part of his career, as he struggled to carve out a spot on the Orlando Magic's rotation.
Redick was the man in his four years at Duke, establishing himself as one of the school's greatest players. Unlike most players, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski threw him straight into the fire, playing 30.7 minutes a game during his freshman year. Redick never looked back after that, finishing his NCAA career averaging 34.0 minutes a game.
As Redick transitioned to the NBA after the Magic selected him with the 11th pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, he soon discovered how hard it was to earn minutes in the big leagues. In fact, his rookie season saw him play just 14.8 minutes per game, which dropped substantially to 8.1 during his sophomore campaign.
This wasn't lost on CP, who entered the NBA a year ahead of Redick. After winning Rookie of the Year honors, CP continued to roll in his second year in the league, which happened to be Redick's first. And as he saw Redick sit on the Magic bench, longing for an opportunity to play, CP couldn't help but remind him of how things have changed since their college days.
"I'm sitting on the bench in a suit. He comes over to me," Redick recalled . "He's like, 'Hey, it's a little different than college, isn't it?'"
At that point, there really was no use denying it: in Redick's eyes, CP was a certified jerk. But little did he know that the man he once loathed would become one of his closest friends.
Redick eventually found his niche in the NBA during his fourth season and used that momentum to establish a reputation as a solid 3-point shooter and a crucial floor spacer. As fate would have it, Redick and Paul became teammates in 2013 after he was traded from the Milwaukee Bucks.
"We were at Brandon Bass's wedding in Houston a month after I signed, and it was the first time I ever really spent time with him. I saw him walk by. I'm sitting before the ceremony, I'm sitting in, like, the hotel lobby, and I'm like, I text him, 'Did I just see you and Jada walk by?' He's like, 'Yeah.' I was like, 'Let's go to the bar and have a drink,'" JJ narrated.
And so began a lifelong friendship between the two. As Redick spent more time with CP, he realized how misunderstood he was in NBA circles; unless you were teammates, it was perfectly understandable if you hated him.
"In the moment, you realize this dude's all about winning. It's all he cares about, right? He's a sick dude, like, just like me. I describe people as, like, sickos. Like, totally obsessed, totally driven, totally motivated, self-motivated, loves the minutiae, loves the details," Redick shared.
"Go play cards, like, you're the same person playing cards as you are in the fourth quarter of a game. Like, CP was the one guy I was like, 'Hey, dude, we're going to be friends for life.'"
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Aug 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
