:::: HANDLE ISSUE 015 COVER STORY: Chris Paul FEATURES: Corey Williams, Mitchell & Ness, Dontaye Draper, NCAA Noise Makers, The 10 Best Point Guards in the NBA. PLUS: Dwight Howard, We take on NBA 2K8, Jeffrey (Heir) Jordan, NBL Rookie Spotlight and more!

Check out a selection of featured spreads from issue 015 below...

EDITOR’S ANGLE 015: COVER FEATURE – CHRIS PAUL

Serving up the sweetness every night on the NBA timber, Chris Paul is a delight in every sense of the word. The New Orleans point guard is no longer poised to become the “next great NBA playmaker”. He’s already there.

Father Time’s been slow catching up with Jason Kidd and Steve Nash. They’re both already on the other side of 30 (34 and 33, respectively) and haven’t slowed yet, but eventually they will have to yield their dual title of premier point guard in the L to New Orleans’ third year gun Chris Paul. It’s a matter of when, not if. Finding a successor shouldn’t have been this easy, but Paul made the transition appear seamless. Few run the show better than the 22-year-old, and his continued improvement has the Hornets thriving in the powerful Southwest Division. He sees the court from more angles than ESPN, and he delivers like Dominos. His 9.5 dimes per game trails only Nash (11.8) and Kidd (10.4) for top honours but, never one to be one-dimensional, he also leads the league on the other end of the court, taking away nearly three a night. More important than his numbers alone, his play has the fans in the Big Easy thinking postseason. “We’ve got to make the playoffs,” Paul says. “I don’t care who it is, when Coach [Byron Scott] puts five guys out there on the court, we’ve got to get a win. If we can avoid injuries, the sky’s the limit for this team.”

The same could be said for Paul’s game. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina was a McDonald’s All-American in 2003 (alongside LeBron James, Kendrick Perkins, Charlie Villanueva and Luol Deng, amongst others) and North Carolina’s Mr Basketball. His senior high school season was marked by an average of better than 30 points, eight assists, five boards and six steals a game, leading West Forsyth High School to a 27-3 record. “Chris was about 5’6”, 5’7” his freshman and sophomore years of high school,” explains older brother CJ, a former standout ball player at the University of South Carolina Upstate. “He was always feisty and competitive. I knew if he grew, he could be good.” He was six feet tall by his third season and he was good.

In a memorable high school match he scored 61 points as a way of honouring his recently murdered grandfather, deliberately missing a free throw and taking himself out of the game once he achieved the age his grandfather was at his death. That game was all about priorities: for Chris Paul, family comes first. His parents are season ticket holders and his manager is CJ. “I love that his family is always around him,” says Scott. “His mother and father are terrific people. After 10 minutes of conversing with them, I knew exactly why he has the values he does. They keep him well-grounded and humble.”

To read the full story, purchase your copy of handle magazine – issue 015 – on sale now.

– BOBBY CIAFARDINI

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