Do Not Taunt Chris Paul

This tale of fandom gone wrong—independently confirmed by Pacers beat writer Mike Wells—is an excellent reason to make Chris Paul your new favorite player.

Paul's Hornets were playing at Indiana last night and the superstar guard was having a rather listless evening. About half way through the fourth quarter, his team was trailing and Paul was just 2-for-8 from the floor in the game. After sitting out for a bit, he went to check back into the game, when a lone Pacers fan unwisely decided that he should get involved in the proceedings.

I was out in Indy sitting first row behind the scorer's table, chatting it up with players left and right (they were, however, ignoring me). The P's had a solid lead and CP wasn't showing up much directly on offense, missing several jumpers. He came to check in at around [six minutes left], and I was in complete Pacers mode. Without thinking, I murmured, "CP ain't shit." He quickly turned around and said, "What?" High off the fact that he even acknowledged me, I said, "Yeah, you're lucky T.J.'s (Ford) not playing." He replied, "Yeah, I prayed for that last night," and rolled his eyes and laughed. I was in complete disarray, and said to the man that I had so passionately spoken in MVP support for last year: "You shouldn't have been mentioned for MVP last year, Kobe is way better than you." He laughed and walked off. My friend gave me the "what have you done" look.

What had he done indeed? Paul made five of his next seven shots, scoring 11 points over the last 3:36 of the game. ("He wasn't looking to score, but then he got going," said Danny Granger.) Then, with two seconds left, he dished off his 12th assist on a David West jumper. Hornets win by two. But it wasn't over there....

CP went over, took a photo with someone, then walked in my direction. I stood up. He stopped directly in front of the scorers table and, pointing a solid finger, and said in LeBron fashion, "It's your fault. It's your fault." My legs began to shake as my star crush walked away.

Awesome. Isn't Chris Paul the dreamiest?

An Angry Chris Paul [The Basketball Jones] How many more times is this going to happen? [Indy Star] Chris Paul Postgame [NBA.com]