Making His Point
As one of the best point guards in the NBA at the tender
age of 22, the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets’ Chris
Paul could very
well become a pro basketball immortal. But his status as a
hoops legend probably took root during a high school basketball
game in 2002 when he scored 61 points for North Carolina’s
West Forsyth High School against rival Parkland High. This
wasn’t just any 61-point game, however. This was the
day after the funeral held for his maternal grandfather, Nathaniel
Jones, who had been beaten to death by five Parkland High
teenagers outside his Winston-Salem home during a robbery
attempt. Chris Paul honored his grandfather by scoring one
point for each year his grandfather had lived (his previous
career high was 37). After Paul hit 61 on the first of two
free throws, he purposely tossed up an air ball, walked to
the bench and cried.
Three years later, after being drafted fourth in the first
round by New Orleans, Paul started a foundation called CP3
(three is his uniform number and he’s the third CP in
the family) and created the Nathaniel Jones Scholarship, which
will award a Forsyth County student a full scholarship to
Wake Forest University, where Paul was an All-American before
joining the NBA after his sophomore season.
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