CP3 confirms he nixed trade to Warriors: 'Never wanted to come out west'
It's true: Chris Paul was nearly a member of the Golden State Warriors.
In a Monday appearance on "Uninterrupted," Paul confirmed a passage in Ethan Strauss' book "The Victory Machine" in which Strauss wrote that the Warriors were on the verge of acquiring Paul from the New Orleans Hornets (now the Pelicans) in 2011, but backed off after he warned Golden State he wouldn't re-sign as a free agent.
"Yeah, I remember. True story. That happened with a few teams," Paul said. "I actually never wanted to come out west. I'm born and raised on the East Coast. So I never was crazy about L.A. and all that until I finally got out here and lived out here.
"But at that time, all I knew really about the Bay (Area) is cause I'd been there to play the games or whatever, and everything was just so hilly and I just thought about 'Full House.' Like, for real, for real. I didn't know. And so at that point in my life and talking with my wife and all that stuff, that ain't ... "
It's believed Golden State's offer for Paul consisted of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, now the team's leading duo. At the time, Curry was a promising young guard with ankle concerns and Thompson was a rookie.
Paul admitted he spurned the Warriors around the same time the NBA - then operating as the owner of the New Orleans franchise - infamously scuppered an agreed-upon, three-team blockbuster that would have sent him to the Los Angeles Lakers.
"That was when the whole Lakers thing got nixed and ... I could've went to the one team, that team, whatever, but everything happens for a reason," the 34-year-old said.
Though Paul confirmed Golden State's interest in him, Larry Riley, the Warriors' general manager at that time, has denied the team was ready to package Curry and Thompson for anybody.
"Steph Curry came to the Warriors and he won himself over as a Warrior for life if he wanted to be," Riley said on 95.7 The Game earlier in April. "At the second half of his rookie season, he established the fact: This is our point guard for the next 10 years.
"And while there was a lot of discussion about the possibilities of trading him, it was never a reality. And we never had a discussion about trading Klay Thompson and Steph Curry for anybody else."
Despite his unfamiliarity with the West Coast, Paul did wind up there in the end. Mere days after the league overruled the deal with the Lakers, New Orleans shipped the guard to the Los Angeles Clippers, with whom he remained until 2017.