Chris Paul grew up in the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina and attended West Forsyth High School. He played two seasons at Wake Forest, from 2003 to 2005, under coach Skip Prosser. In his sophomore season, the Demon Deacons won 27 games and reached the program’s first number-one national ranking. Paul became a consensus first-team All-American before entering professional basketball.
New Orleans selected him fourth overall in the 2005 NBA draft. He received the league’s Rookie of the Year award after his first season. His career later included two Olympic gold medals with the United States. Wake Forest retired his number-three jersey in 2013 and inducted him into its sports hall of fame in 2021, preserving a connection with the school where he had developed as a college player.
Community work became another part of that public career. In April 2015, the NBA gave Paul its monthly Community Assist Award. The announcement described a refurbished Watts Willowbrook Boys & Girls Club, basketball clinics, food and toy drives, and scholarship support involving the Nathaniel Jones Scholarship Fund and UNCF. The same announcement included the Jada Paul Prom Dress Giveaway and a celebrity bowling event benefiting children’s charities, projects that involved family members and partner organizations.
Paul served as president of the National Basketball Players Association from 2013 until 2021. When CJ McCollum succeeded him, the union described work on the 2017 collective bargaining agreement, benefits for active and retired players, group licensing rights, and arrangements for basketball’s return during the pandemic. Those negotiations involved union staff, elected representatives, players and league officials, with Paul’s leadership as part of that collective work.
In 2016, he joined Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade on the ESPYS stage to address racial injustice. Andscape’s report records Paul identifying the group as African American men. He later described how their private conversations had become a shared public statement.
Paul announced his retirement on February 13, 2026, after 21 NBA seasons. Toronto had waived him earlier that day following a trade from the Clippers.
