The signature sports stars who never won a championship often say their failure to win a ring, or a chip, does not define who they are or what they meant to their teams and their leagues.
And they have a point, of course. The Hall-of-Fame likes of Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley and Dan Marino were wildly successful athletes in any other context. Ted Williams never won a World Series with the Red Sox, yet he’s perhaps the best pure hitter who ever lived. Elgin Baylor did not win a title with the Lakers, yet he rightfully ranks among the finest small forwards to ever play the game.
Chris Paul has that going for him right now. Long before the Suns’ gutting 123-119 Game 5 loss to the Bucks, the Phoenix playmaker had secured his place as one of the best point guards of his generation, or any generation. In the regular season, Paul has scored nearly 20,000 points and passed for more than 10,000 assists. He has been selected for 11 All-Star Games. He has proved that a six-foot playmaker can dominate without elite, high-flying athleticism.
But make no mistake: If a great athlete never wins The Big One, that hole in his résumé follows him into retirement. Though the greatness isn’t questioned, the conversation about that athlete inevitably veers into a maddening series of “Whys.”
Why didn’t he win a championship?
Why couldn’t he elevate his team above a superior final-round opponent just once in his career?
Why shouldn’t the ring-free record knock him down a level or two on the unofficial all-time list at his position?
So after the Bucks moved to within one victory of a title, Paul surely understood the consequences of failure. He knows that if Milwaukee were to recover from a 2-0 Finals deficit to win it all, the lost opportunity would stay with him forever.
“We knew this wasn’t going to be easy,” Paul said after his 21-point, 11-assist, one-turnover performance wasn’t enough in Game 5. “Coach said it all year long: Everything we want is on the other side of hard, and it don’t get no harder than this.”
Paul made some huge shots late — including the basket that cut the Suns’ deficit to one point with less than a minute to go — as Phoenix tried to recover from a mid-game Milwaukee onslaught that made the Suns’ 16-point first-quarter lead a distant memory. But in the end, Jrue Holiday was the better man at the point. He delivered 27 points, 13 assists, and one crucial strip of Devin Booker in the closing seconds of what was a one-possession game, before he threw a perfect alley-oop pass on the break to Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Booker scored 40 points three nights after he scored 42. Asked afterward how frustrated he was for his elder, Paul, he responded, “Next question please.”
This was never going to be easy for Paul. His Suns appeared to be the stronger team after winning five more games than Milwaukee won in the regular season, after going 2-0 against the Bucks during that regular season, and after winning the first two games of these Finals. Paul had a combined 55 points and 17 assists in those victories, setting up the main storyline for the eventual coronation. Much as John Elway had won his first title at age 37, the Suns’ quarterback could win his at age 36. Someone on the championship stage might even declare, “This one’s for Chris.”
And then Games 3 and 4 in Milwaukee happened. Paul suddenly looked older, slower, and more injured than before. He has been through a ton this postseason — the shoulder injury, the COVID-19 diagnosis, the partially torn ligaments in his right hand, the apparent left wrist issue — and apparently it caught up to him. Holiday, one of the toughest defenders anywhere, also caught up to him, and suddenly there was Paul answering for the turnovers that helped turn a 2-0 series into a 2-2 series.
“I turned the ball over hella times before,” he had explained.
Just never with so much on the line.
Paul responded to his 15 turnovers in the previous three games with one turnover in 35 minutes in Game 5, but Milwaukee’s Big 3 were too strong, finishing with a combined 88 points. Paul has landed on the wrong side of postseason history with the Pelicans, the Clippers, and the Rockets, who might have won the whole thing in 2018 had their playmaker not injured his hamstring in Game 5 against the Warriors.
He might never get another clear shot at this. Paul is an all-timer at point guard, and that can never be taken away from him. But now he could really use two straight sudden-death victories, to eliminate the Bucks and that maddening series of “Whys.”