Last season when the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers were locked in a close, chippy game that went down to the wire. In the final moments of the game, Lakers 7-foot forward Pau Gasol playfully patted Clippers 6″ point guard Chris Paul on the head; a gesture that Paul took offense to.
Apparently CP3 is still a bit peeved by the incident, as he mentions in a recent interview with GQ magazine:
“We call that sonnin’, ” he explains to [GQ]. “Like when I take Li’l Chris to the bathroom, I’ll walk with my hand on his head. That’s my son. You know what I mean? I understand that Gasol is that tall, but don’t do to me what I do to my son.”
Paul’s slight grudge about the incident is understandable, as patting another grown man on the head during a competitive game can come across a bit condescending. (Quick interesting tidbit: remember, CP3 and Gasol were almost traded for each other before David Stern nixed the deal last off-season).
Paul went on in the excellent GQ interview to discuss his leadership qualities, how he plans to address his pending free agency and more. You can view the full piece on GQ’s site here.
-ALR
Poor little feller!
While I can understand Chris Paul, I’d still say he needs to get out more. There are cultural differences that are often misunderstood by Americans in regards to Europeans. What Paul considered condescending, probably didn’t register as anything but a “mea culpa” to Pau Gasol. For example, go to Spain and you’ll find that the gesture we know as “go away” means exactly the opposite. I understand that in the heat of a game, you don’t contemplate social etiquette, but again, Americans need to get out more.
THE COME TO THE USA TO PLAY THEY SHOULD LEARN OUR CULTURE!
You wrote it first. Paul is apparently a middle-American redneck who “don’t take kindly to customs of them foreigners”, even when they mean sorry.
He is so very Upset about head Pat incident.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120918212354AAuZgFm
First off, Pau is like a foot taller? And if this pisses Paul off, maybe he should earn some credibility first, then someone accomplished as a CHAMPION would not use this method of DISRESPECT towards another player?
Pau is a true gentleman, and a man who someday wants to be a children’s doctor.
What he is NOT is a punk and a racist or anything else a LOSER like CPIII is(and always will be unless Miami or the Lakers sign him)!!
get over it Paul damn !
grow up and shove it up paul!!!!
cp3 thats why we would not want you on the LAKERS, your a big o baby.