Chris Paul Is Going After The Miami Heat

Chris Paul has pushed for a trade with the New Orleans Hornets, and has listed the New York Knicks as his top priority.

If it happens, it could make the NBA even more intriguing. At the very least, it’s shown that Chris Paul is wired the way we want our star athletes to be – excessively competitively.

The great part? He’s not alone.

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There is perhaps an underlying, “jilted at the altar” motif to this storyline. A rumor persisted, though it had didn’t have many legs, that Paul and James had discussed joining forces in Cleveland.

The problem was that Paul is under contract for at least two more years.

Whether there was a handshake agreement for CP3 and LBJ to join forces in Cleveland, or elsewhere, the allure of playing with Wade and Bosh in Miami was too much for the self proclaimed King to resist.

Now it seems that Paul is taking his talents to Manhatten, or at least to a contender that can out-duel the feared New World Order in Miami. It reeks of “Oh yeah? Fine, I’ll go to where you were supposed to go.”

Even more so, it’s making Chris Paul my personal hero.

I’ve written that the NBA regular season is kind of boring to me now that three of the best players in the league are joining forces in Miami. I mean, how am I supposed to reasonably believe that any team can contend with them?

How am I supposed to care about the long haul of the NBA betting season in 2010-11 when there’s one, clear cut super team in the Eastern Conference?

It’s no secret that the world has turned on Bosh, LeBron and Wade for forming an Evil Empire of sorts.

We’ve all judged them, disagreed and debated on the historic impact of the three superstars taking less money to play together. What nobody really debates is how good they will be together.

Everyone felt bad for the beleaguered Cavaliers fans, especially since LeBron left them in the dust. He’s one of them. I can understand where they’re coming from and why they feel so betrayed. If you’ve been a sports fan in any city, losing a superstar is hard.

Paul forcing a trade to New York would give the beaten down fans of the Knicks a reason to hope. The tandem of Amar’e and Paul may be no better offensively than when Stoudemire played with Nash, but the Glendale-Phoenix area is not Manhatten.

Paul and Amar’e would be a force of nature together, but they’re also an attractive inside-outside presence for prospective free-agents in waiting. Together, they could maybe give the LeBrontourage fits in the playoffs. But with Carmelo Anthony or Dwight Howard with them? I know. It just feels awesome.

There’s been a lot of talk about what LeBron’s decision did to his legacy. Even Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson have come out to say that playing with their biggest rivals was just “not an option”.

Feeling the pressure to be great, guys like Melo, CP3 and Dwight want to be the foil to the Miami Heat. They want to crush this team, and if they even beat them once it will be worthwhile. If any combination of those superstars do it in New York, however, they will be immortal.

God I hope this happens. I need something to make basketball feel interesting and competitive again.