"I remember one of my teammates -- might have been Mike James -- said, 'When you're in this league, this opportunity doesn't come along that often where you're actually on a team where you have a chance to win a championship.' And I honestly thought our team in '07-08 could win a championship. And I remember sitting there while he was talking and I was thinking to myself, I'm going to have a chance to win every year. That was the year I was runner-up for the MVP. I'm thinking to myself, Man, I don't know what he's talking about -- as long as I'm out here we're going to have a chance to win it every single year, you know what I mean? But that's not the case.''
"I want to see what that feels like with guys that I've been with for nine or 10 months,'' he said. "It's definitely huge when you're representing your country, and I love all those guys on my [Olympic] teams. We'll never forget those experiences. We're together with that USA team for two months usually; it's something also to be said with these guys who you've been on the road with 10 months.''
Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Chandler were his only teammates at the recent Olympics who had also earned an NBA championship. Paul's goal is to rank among the greatest winners.
Billups led the Pistons to the 2003-04 championship, but he has found it difficult to pass his understanding on to others.
"It is something that you got to go through,'' Billups said. "I try to share my experiences with the guys, my disappointments, my mistakes. But you really don't know until you go through it. I'm trying to speed them up and not have to let them fall and bump their heads, but sometimes that's the best teacher.
"Chris isn't the kind of guy that has to fall and bump his head. He'll listen to you and learn like that. I wish more guys were like that. They're not, but that's why he's so great.''
While Paul has been building the Clippers to win, he has also been trying to expedite the education of Griffin, who was sidelined Monday and Wednesday by a strained left hamstring.
"I used to talk to Tony Parker pretty often about the years they won the championships,'' Paul said of the Spurs. "Tony used to always say, 'CP, you need that third guy. If me and Timmy [Duncan] don't have it that one night, we know Manu [Ginobili] is going to pick it up.' He used to always say that. And I just watched. I paid attention.''
The role of "third guy'' could be handled by any number of Clippers -- Billups, Odom, Crawford, Hill or Bledsoe. The priority for Paul has been to turn Griffin into his Tim Duncan. Paul can't challenge Griffin to improve defensively "unless,'' said Paul, "I'm doing it myself. I have to work. The thing is, Blake is a hard worker, he works hard on stuff like that. And I forget at times that Blake is young. Like sometimes I look at him like we've been in the league the same amount of time.''
He laughed and went on, "But that's not the case. And I understand that we don't have a chance without him being great. Not being good. Without him being great. That's why he is who he is and what he means to our team.''
For Chris Paul and the Clippers, it's title or bust
