Chris Paul Earns Prestigious Award From USA Basketball
12/28/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2004
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (December 28, 2004) -- USA Basketball teammates Sean May (North Carolina / Bloomington, Ind.) and Chris Paul (Waake Forest / Lewisville, N.C.), who helped lead the 2004 USA World Championship For Young Men Qualifying Team to a gold medal, were selected USA Basketball co-Male Athletes of the Year by the USA Basketball Executive Committee.
"The USA Basketball Executive Committee identified two very deserving athletes for this award," said USA Basketball Executive Director Jim Tooley. "Sean May and Chris Paul share honors as their outstanding performances at the U21 World Championship Qualification Tournament propelled the team to its undefeated record and gold medal."
"To me, it's probably the greatest accomplishment I've had so far in my basketball career," said May. "I was extremely excited and the first thing I did was call my dad to let him know. It's a great honor to me, for one to make the team and be able to play for the USA. But to be named co-Player of the Year is a great honor. It's great because Chris is a really good player, but more because we're really great friends and we played on a USA Basketball team together. Hopefully we'll play on another one down the line."
"I'm still trying to figure out how this happened," said a stunned Paul. "This is such an honor. Sean is so deserving of this, he had a great summer. He was huge for our team. But I know that neither Sean nor I could have done this without our teammates. Everything we did over the summer, we did together. My teammates made it a lot easier on me and this wouldn't have happened without them."
Only three times previously has USA Basketball selected multiple recipients for one of its awards. In 1982 Cindy Noble and LaTaunya Pollard were co-honorees for Female Athlete of the Year. Two years later Olympic gold medalists Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins collected the accolade on the men's side and in 1992 the entire U.S. Men's Olympic Team was dubbed the USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year.
As the co-USA Basketball Male Athletes of the Year, May and Paul have been nominated by USA Basketball to the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) for consideration of its 2004 Male Athlete of the Year Award, which will be announced at a later date.
In its 25th year, the USA Basketball Athlete of the Year award has been garnered by notable athletes such as Ray Allen (1995), Tim Duncan (2003), Jordan (1983, 1984, as a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team), Reggie Miller (2002), Alonzo Mourning (1990, 2000), Shaquille O'Neal (1994), Gary Payton (1999), Scottie Pippen (as a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team, 1996), David Robinson (1986, as a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team) and Isiah Thomas (1980).
"My dad told me congratulations, all the hard work I put in this summer paid off," added May, whose father Scott May won an Olympic gold medal in Montreal, Canada as a member of the â?~76 squad. "He said I owed a lot of it to Chris because he put me into good situations and got me the ball a lot. He's a very unselfish point guard. He also reminded me that coach (Kelvin) Sampson put me into situations to be successful, to be able to use my abilities and hide my weaknesses. He was extremely excited for me. It wasn't the Olympics, but we still wore U-S-A across our chests and we still represented our country."