Chris Paul on the Clippers: "One of the Most Disrespectful Things I've Endured"

Chris Paul learned to steal the ball by studying how opponents think, not just by being faster. In a viral clip, he explained his method: when Derrick Rose dribbled up the court with his left hand, Paul ran behind him and feigned a steal attempt on that side. Rose’s natural instinct was to switch the ball to his right hand—where Paul was already waiting. “I just found a way, year after year, as soon as they switched to the other hand, that’s what I’m right there to steal,” Paul said. He invented the technique himself. No one taught it to him.

Creativity as a survival skill

Paul is six feet tall—generously listed—in a league of seven-footers. That forced him to think differently. His patented fadeaway jump shot, for example, was not something he practiced in high school. It emerged naturally in the NBA, where a six-foot guard faced a seven-foot-two defender in the lane. Repetition turned it into a weapon. “It just became repetition. Now you can’t block my shot,” he said.

The same creative instinct shaped his approach to jump balls. Against a much taller opponent, Paul would place his hand just slightly above the other player’s before the referee tossed the ball. “If I just get my hand over top of his and we jump, I’m gonna win the tip,” he explained. Officials rarely call it a foul because it happens too fast. It is a small, legal edge—the kind Paul built his career on.