Hornets Hype

From the Times Picayune comes a sad story about a kid who died of cancer before he got his wish to see the Hornets play. He asked to be buried in his Chris Paul jersey. George Shinn sent flowers to the family and asked if he could help with funeral costs, and Chris Paul is going to write the kid’s name, Brian, on his shoes when he plays tonight. The article mentions that CP wanted to go to the funeral, but couldn’t because the Hornets have to travel. So, you know, if you weren’t already on board with the whole “Chris Paul is MVP and also a great guy” thing, you will be after you read this story.

Chris Paul doesn’t have to do the things he does. He could be indifferent. But he’s not. When I met him, he was polite and friendly– you could totally see how everyone says he’s a cool guy to be around. Hell, he’d watched all of his MVP videos and he knew exactly which one was ours. He didn’t have to care about this kid and his family, especially during the playoffs. But he did.

Speaking of CP3, this bit about what the various players did during the Game 1 Ring of Fire delay just goes to back up what I said about him in my Chris Paul Blog Day entry.

TNT had to awkwardly fill air time that they did not expect to occur (not their fault), so they performed the tried and true method of panning around the court and commenting on the players they saw. The cameras hit Tim Duncan, who sat on the bench with coach Greg Popovich, holding the skipper’s clipboard, drawing up fake plays that must have been hilarious by the way Popovich was laughing, and simply joking around. The cameras hit Bonzi Wells, who was having his own fun, showboating to the home crowd fans. But then the cameras hit Chris Paul, who simply stood there like mannequin, a steely gaze in his eyes that would have bordered on creepy had he been somebody who I met on the street. Chris Paul was not thinking about the hilarity of the situation at hand. He was not thinking about the crowd, nor was he thinking about the episode of Lost he had tivo’d, nor was he thinking about the ridiculously hot Hornets dancing squad, the Honeybees. He was thinking about basketball. Nothing else. Being a primary topic of discussion, TNT probably had Chris Paul on their cameras about four or five times, and he never lost that gaze.

More Hornets articles… Y’all know I love me some Bonzi. Here’s a nice article about him today from the San Antonio Express News. Damn, I wish I hadn’t read an article about Bonzi. It just reminds me how much I’d love a Red Bull right now. No joke.

And in case you missed it on Tuesday, there was a really sweet feature on David West and how he almost quit basketball after changing schools in high school.

Aaand I’ll probably be back in a couple hours with more stuff. Carry on, Buzz Nation.