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In February 2009, I posted a mock interview with Chris Paul, addressing all the times he's tumbled to the floor, arms flailing, at the lightest of bumps.  Here are the pertinent parts:

Ryan: It sure looked like you were in pain on the court - what's up with that?
Paul: Well, you know how it is.  Just tryin' to keep pace.  You got me?
Ryan: Uh . . . no?
Paul: Well, I'm just tryin to keep up with Bron and Kobe, ya know?  Kobe's got that glamorous LA scene and everything, and his jersey is all popular and stuff.  Bron's got all those commercials and that whole Global Icon thing going on.  I'm just tryin to carve out my niche.
Ryan: By pretending your injury is worse than it is?
Paul: No man.  Acting!  I'm tryin' to be an actor.  I mean, Ray Allen's got nothing on me . . . have you seen my smile?  Everyone loves my smile, man.
Ryan: It's a nice smile, Chris.
Paul: Really?  You're not just saying that, right?
Ryan: Really, Chris. It's nice.
Paul: That's good, my mom always complimented me on my smile and all, but it's good to get outside confirmation.
Ryan: No problem . . . so, uh, are you aiming for movies then or something? TV?
Paul: Naw.  That's been done.  I'm gonna hit Broadway.
Ryan: Broadway?  Really?
Paul: Yeah - I was up there a week ago, hanging with Bron as he was looking for a cool place to move into, and I saw this play, Billy Elliot, ya know?  It touched me man.  This poor, struggling kid, everyone around him all dirt poor and stuff - and he just wants to dance.  And no one, I mean no one understood him.  He just wanted to dance, man.  Just wanted to dance . . .
Ryan: Are you crying?
Paul: *sniffle* No!  Shut up!
Ryan: Sorry.
Paul: Anyways, I wanna be the lead of that show.  I got moves on the court, off the court, everywhere, you better believe I got them on the stage.  You've never seen a guy who can dance like me.  I'd be perfect.

Well, you know, ya’ll thought I was kidding.  But I wasn’t. 

Here’s Paul dancing and then getting love from the ladies on the show So You Think you Can Dance. 

Amazing, eh?  Apparently, the show is calling him “Adechike Torbert”, but really, who among us is going to buy that?  Just look at that Grin!  It's Chris Paul through and through.  Oh, and have you ever heard a more made-up name than "Adechike"?

Wait, so you’re still not convinced?  Well here’s “Adechike” doing the “assist point” to one of the Choreographers in the crowd, just like he does when he catches an outlet pass and finishes in transition.  Straight off the basketball court, I tell you.

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Two months into the season the media and basketball junkies worldwide are going to be talking about the New Orleans Hornets and Chris Paul as if they just crawled out of the swamp to become one of the better teams in the Western Conference. When that happens remember this post.

You see, the memory of NBA fans can be compared to a stoned elephant, or perhaps a goldfish swimming in Everclear. As soon as something new and flashy comes along or an completely fluke injury occurs to a star player they do a 180 on their stance, sometimes completely contradicting their previous sentiment.

Think about it for a second- Two years ago the Hornets were considered dark horse title contenders. ESPN experts had them as the second most likely team to win the NBA title. They weren't unrealistic though, and had the foresight to essentially predict what would wind up happening.

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With all the free agent signings going on around the league, Hornets fans feel a little left out. Considering the team went 37-45 last year and Chris Paul wants to win right away, the team needs to make big moves right away, right? Wrong.

People seem to be forgetting that the Hornets are going to be a pretty damn good team this year without doing much of anything this summer. Don't forget, after Byron Scott was fired the Hornets went 18-10 in the 28 games in which Chris Paul was healthy.

Let's briefly look what the problems were last year and what can be done to remedy them. Some of the problems just went away by themselves.

• Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison were stuck on the bench for much of the season. Given that the two of the team's top five players weren't seeing much time in favor of Devin Brown, one can assume that they actually would have been even better had the rookies been given more time to shine early in the seaseon. It wasn't until March that Thornton surpassed 30 minutes per game despite his excellent season. That won't be the case this year and for good reason.

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So I'm sitting here in sunny Las Vegas getting ready to head over to see my first Summer League game. The opportunities for interviews and conversations are endless and I know you guys want to get the goods on what's going on with the team.

Here's your chance. Ask whatever you want to whoever you want and I'll do my best to make sure we get an answer for you.

It would probably be best to avoid asking about CP3 trade stuff since that's been overdone as it is.

According to Wikipedia, which obviously is the end-all source on everything, the Hornets don't have a rival. That makes me remarkably sad considering the deep seeded mild anger that I feel toward opposing ball clubs. If we don't have a rival, how will anyone know which games matter most at the beginning of the season? Sure every game matters, but there is something to be said for manufacturing drama, especially on a sports blog.

Since the dawn of sports, long term rivalries have existed for a number of reasons, including...

• The two teams that are competing have fan bases that are in close geographical proximity to one another, often leading for fans to root for one or the other.
• The teams are thrust into competing in crucial games year after year in which only one can prevail
• Both teams have an excellent player whose accomplishments for whatever reason are always compared to those of another team's excellent player.
• They are a great marketing tool for teams to entice fans to come to the arena, even if a season isn't going quite as planned.
  
• The media needs stuff to write about, and the fans want a reason to care more.
  

Frankly I don't want to start a discussion about who Hornets fans like the least, but that's exactly what needs to happen to determine a rival. Lot's of teams have angered the Bees over the years, and it's time fans let them know exactly how they feel.

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