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Home is still Lewisville, despite son's success
Journal Graphic by Richard Boyd II / Photos by Bruce Chapman
Charles and Robin Paul relax in the living room of their new home in Lewisville. The family portrait (inset) includes sons C.J. (left) and Chris.
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Published: July 20, 2008
LEWISVILLE - Charles and Robin Paul have reached the point in life where they could sit idly on the clouds and enjoy all the luxuries of being Chris Paul's parents.
They are doing that, to a degree.
They continue to plan for their trip to Beijing, China, in early August to watch their son play for the U.S. basketball team in the Olympics. When they talk about people they have met and places they have been since Chris Paul left Wake Forest and turned into an NBA All-Star guard for the New Orleans Hornets, they smile and say that it is all beyond their wildest dreams. But the couple -- who grew up in Winston-Salem, met at Dreamland Park Baptist Church and have lived in Lewisville since shortly after they were married in 1982 -- do not live in selfish extravagance. The proper terms would be selfless, and understated.
They play an active role in the community as the executive directors of the CP3 Foundation, which has raised more than $200,000 in the past two years for local charities and has its signature fundraiser, Chris Paul's Winston-Salem Weekend, scheduled for its third
annual run Sept. 18-21. And they continue to work with youth in the community. Charles Paul is the program director of the CP3 All-Stars, AAU summer basketball teams for area boys in six age groups. He does the oversight and some of the coaching, as he did while Chris and older son C.J. were growing up. Robin Paul does the paperwork, mans the phones and makes all the travel arrangements.
Charles Paul chuckles at the whirlwind pace of what is supposed to be "retirement." Running the CP3 All-Stars is a 9-to-5 labor of love sometimes.
"I say to her all the time, ‘I saw you more when you worked than I see you now,' because she's constantly on the phone, constantly talking to different people," Charles Paul said recently.
"But that's one thing about us. We've got balance. She's got her strengths and I've got mine. One of her strengths is she loves talking to people, and I don't like talking on the phone. So she does all that stuff. I'm like the hands-on person. I like to go to the games and try to talk to the kids. I enjoy that kind of stuff."
This is the way that the area's most-famous parents want it. And this is the essence of their life story.
Raised in the church
They were raised in the church. And when they raised their sons, they instilled in them those church values. They went to great lengths to support their sons' athletics careers -- Robin Paul even coached Chris' YMCA team when he was an eighth-grader because her husband was coaching at Bishop McGuinness at the time -- and they shared in all the joys and sorrows along the way. Now that son Chris has become a multimillionaire with a new $68 million contract extension and many endorsement contracts, including his personal shoe line with Nike's Jordan Brand, they want to remain true to themselves and true to the community.
"Probably the most satisfying part of all this happening to Chris and the family is that we've always stayed rooted and grounded," Charles Paul said. "My wife and I give all the credit to God because God is the one that gave us Chris and gave us the chance. Like Chris says, he was given an opportunity to play basketball, so we're grateful for how God has blessed us."
Somewhere in one of those sermons was a little segment on the importance of giving back. Or as some say, giving forward. Proceeds from this year's Chris Paul's Winston-Salem Weekend will be split among the Salvation Army Boys and Girls clubs, Feed the Children, Meals on Wheels and the Special Olympics. Last year, proceeds went to Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth. Before that, the CP3 Foundation gave $110,000 to Wake Forest for a scholarship endowment in honor of the late Nathaniel Jones, Robin Paul's father. And the foundation provided money to refurbish the courts at the Rupert Bell Community Center.
There are other charities and projects in New Orleans and Oklahoma City, where Chris Paul played parts of two seasons while New Orleans was rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.
"Chris is such a big giver, and it's up to us to carry that out for him, and it's up to us to find out where he can help best in the community," Robin Paul said.
"Not only here but in Louisiana. There's a great need there. One day he's focusing a lot on the thing here in September, but between now and September, the foundation will probably do two or three more events. We're giving 12 elementary-school kids in New Orleans -- exchange students who are going on trips -- we're giving them a set of luggage and making sure they have everything paid for on the trip. So there's always stuff like that. I'm sure when he gets to China, there will be something he will do over there."
Charles Paul points out that not everyone who approaches Chris Paul or the foundation has selfless intentions. So it's their job to sort out the good from the bad, and it is their job to protect their son, in a sense, from the "posses" and hangers-on that sometimes get a grip on other NBA players.
"We know people are going to come at him with stuff, and that's something he struggles with," Charles Paul said. "He knows. He doesn't know when, but he knows someone is going to come at him and it's not going to be something we approve of."
Winston-Salem is hometown
Robin Paul was born and raised in Winston-Salem, graduating from Carver High School in 1980. She went on to attend Forsyth Technical Community College, High Point College and Winston-Salem State. Charles Paul, two years older, was born in Anderson, S.C., but his family moved to Winston-Salem when he was 4. He went to several schools because of forced busing, and wound up graduating from East Forsyth, then went on to Winston-Salem State.
They consider themselves an unlikely pair.
"We grew up in the same church, but he didn't like me -- he couldn't stand me," Robin Paul said. "He thought I was spoiled, or whatever. He thought my father spoiled me. Then I used to baby-sit his brother and sister, and he used to come over. And before you know it, we were just friends. And we remained friends for a long time. And then we started dating, and I guess we started growing on each other. Yes, we did. We started growing on each other. And I love him to death."
Charles Paul's version: "We went to the same church. Our parents were friends. Over the years, we were dating others, and we were just friends and church associates. And then one day, just all of a sudden. I guess she couldn't stand me and I couldn't stand her, and we just got together. But we were just friends for a long time."
They started raising a family quickly. C.J. -- Charles Jr. -- was born in 1983, and Chris followed on May 6, 1985.
Charles Paul was a sports fan all along. Even after his football career at East Forsyth ended, he continued to play various sports into his 20s, and 30s, and to a lesser degree even now -- at 47 he continues to bowl and play basketball. Ever the proud papa, he says that he continued to beat son C.J. in pickup and one-on-one games long after C.J. headed off to Hampton and then transferred to USC-Upstate. He won't say when it was that son Chris started beating him, but he smiles when he talks about the family's point-guard genes.
"I get a lot of calls from buddies saying, ‘Why don't you ever talk about playing ball?'" Charles Paul said. "I say, ‘Because they're concerned about Chris; they ain't concerned about my little deal.' But, yeah, I played, and Chris reminds me a lot of me. All my friends tell me, ‘Every time I look at that boy, I think of you.' You know, Chris' skill level is a lot higher than mine, but as far as passing the ball and my intensity level, I always played hard. And I still do."
Eventually, he got into coaching while working in security at Aijis Mechtronics, which provides surveillance equipment for businesses. By the time sons C.J. and Chris were old enough to start playing, he was coaching them.
He was an assistant coach at West Forsyth in Chris' junior and senior years, when Chris blossomed into a McDonald's All-America. But he had been on the bench or coaching Chris' school, YMCA and AAU teams in some fashion since the fifth grade -- except for the one year that wife Robin coached Chris' YBA team.
"Everybody else saw the promise in C.J. rather than Chris growing up," Charles Paul said. "Until Chris' 10th-grade year, and that's when Chris really started showing that he got that savvy in him. But I still talk to people who say, ‘Whoever would have thought?' Because they both played football and basketball, and a lot of people didn't even know Chris played basketball, unless you were at the Y. Everyone thought of Chris as this tough little football kid, who was knocking people around and just mean on the football field."
Who would have thought?
Not Charles Paul.
"I always tell Robin, out of all the kids that I coached and all the kids that I watched play ball, I was always saying, ‘This kid might be in there one year,' and all the while I was doing that talking, I never thought mine would," he said.
Sacrifices along the way
There were sacrifices along the way, for sure -- financial sacrifices, time sacrifices.
"We spent all Mother's Days in a gym," Robin Paul said. "We spent all our anniversaries in a gym. I mean, we spent a lot of time in gyms. Our vacations were always basketball trips, to national tournaments. We sacrificed doing things to the house, sacrificed sometimes getting a new car, just to make sure that they got to their tournaments. But it was worth it."
Chris Paul appreciates the support his parents gave him then, and continue to give him now. He boasts that his parents come to more of his games even now than any other players in the NBA, with the possible exception of Elton Brand. They also represent him at dinners and functions that he cannot attend.
The day that Chris Paul told them that they could quit their jobs and start running the foundation was one of his proudest moments.
"My mom and dad have always been there for me," he said. "They showed me right from wrong. They've always been a constant support. Probably the most fun thing I've ever done was the day I told them they didn't have to work anymore and they can run the foundation and come to games when they want to and do the things they never got to do because they were running in behind me and my brother.
"That's something I talked to my financial adviser about, and I was able to do it after my rookie year. My dad -- I saw him work. My dad spent his whole 401(k) on me and my brother playing AAU ball. To see him at work, he never complained. He just wanted to make sure me and my brother and my mom had enough to get by. Just to know I can take care of them now to a certain extent, I don't know how to say it. I don't think there's any greater feeling than to see the looks on their faces when I told them that. They never asked me could they stop working. They would still be working today if it was up to them. Now they work, but they just sort of work for me."
They work out of a new home, which they moved into this summer. It's in a gated community off Lewisville-Clemmons Road, a few miles from the house where they had lived since April 1984.
It's a nice house, for sure, with all the modern amenities. But it's not overstated. And that goes back to the common thread. It is not selfish extravagance. Doesn't need to be.
"We had mixed emotions about moving," Robin Paul said. "We have a lot of memories at the other house, a lot of memories. But we can bring a lot of those memories here. One thing we're proud of is that we've stayed here. Everybody said we would move away from here, move into a mansion and all that. But that's not us. And it's not our money. It's Chris' money, you know."
"We ain't trying to live the life of the rich and famous," Charles Paul said. "We're just trying to live like God blessed us. This is home. Yeah, we could move to New Orleans or Texas or wherever we wanted to go, but we still like living here. We still like Lewisville."
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
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