There would be no Jake from State Farm without Chris Paul.
The beloved NBA player made a return to television alongside the company icon in a heartfelt reunion.
“I still remember the very first spot that we did years ago, and it was new for me,” Paul reflected in an interview with Blavity. “I did Nike commercials and whatnot, but never had done something of this extent.”
Paul, affectionately known as CP3 to fans, toggled between two characters for the commercials—one where he played himself, and another as Cliff Paul, the nerdy (but still handsome) insurance salesman and his fictional twin.
Reminiscing on the old days
“The days were really long, where I’m having to be Chris, and I’m having to act like I’m talking to myself, almost like The Klumps—not as many characters as Eddie Murphy, but it was a lot of fun,” Paul said. “That’s what started this whole relationship with State Farm, which has been amazing, and it continues to evolve. People would always talk about Chris and Cliff, and these State Farm commercials, but what made it even better was the things that we would do in the community, right? We would start doing learning labs and learning centers in these different cities, and it made the partnership bigger than these cool TV spots.”
No stranger to philanthropy, the sentiment is in CP3—not just on him—thanks to role models like his father and late grandfather, both known as pillars of their community in Lewisville, a small town outside Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“It gave me an opportunity to show a different side of me, as far as entertainment and having fun, and also the whole idea of the assist,” said Paul of the popular television spots. “I got a chance to get other people involved in the commercials. Over the years, people who had never done commercials—John Stockton, who never did a commercial while he played—was a part of one of our campaigns. We had Kevin Garnett, Kevin Love, Dame Lillard, DeAndre Jordan, all these different people who we were assisting in the commercial spots. But then it just carried over into the different things that we were doing. For every assist a game I would get, there would be a donation here, or there would be a donation there. So, it’s connecting all of the pop culture and the commercials with real life.”
As the second all-time assist leader in NBA history, CP3 is a testament to what it means to be selfless—not only as a player on a team, but in life.
What does the term assist mean to CP3?
“First and foremost, I think it means selflessness, right? When you’re assisting, it’s not about you,” he said. “Obviously, you have the basketball terms where you pass it and someone scores, but I think just growing up, from my childhood with my parents, and growing up in the church, and understanding that it takes a village to raise a child, and community is everything. I think, in all the things that we do, most people don’t want to be alone, and everything that we’ve done over the years has always been about community and how they can assist. State Farm finds a way to show up everywhere—literally, every league, organization, WNBA, NBA—it doesn’t matter, they find a way to show up.”
As a husband and father to two children, Christopher “Chris Jr.” Emmanuel Paul II and Camryn Alexis Paul, CP3 has incorporated lessons from the game into parenting, instilling specific values and principles in his son and daughter.
“One of the things I try to tell my kids, and especially the young guys that come into the NBA, is that it’s not real life,” said CP3. “It’s a privilege to be in the NBA, not a right. And you’ve got to understand and be grateful for the day in, the day out, the grind, but you can’t take yourself too seriously. I think sometimes people get a little bit too high on their horse when they’re in these situations. Always understand that one day you will be a retired player. That’s one thing that all of us current players have in common—at some point, you will be a retired player.”
He continued, “The perfect retirement would definitely be to win, you know, your last game, because if you win your last game, that usually means you won a championship,” said CP3. “But just wanting to be able to go out on my own terms and make sure that I went out the right way.”
Although the LA Clippers are his current home, CP3 has played for various teams, including the New Orleans Hornets, Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, and the San Antonio Spurs—giving him a chance to wear a lot of cool gear and, more importantly, leave a lasting impact across the league.
“My favorite jersey design over the years—it’s crazy—it might be when I played in New Orleans,” said CP3. “We had a Mardi Gras edition jersey that was pretty dope, but then, also, a lot of people forget that I actually played in Oklahoma my first two years because of Hurricane Katrina. We had a very rare jersey that nobody ever really understands where it came from. We had red jerseys for Valentine’s Day; those were some really dope jerseys.”
Making high school Chris Paul proud
Reflecting on his proudest moment, CP3 said with ease that it’s the fact that his family is still together.
“And I don’t mean like my immediate family—I mean my community, my aunts and uncles,” he said. “My older brother lives four minutes away from me, down the street. Throughout 21 years of this, we’ve seen everything that you could possibly see, and so I think that’s probably what my high school self would be proudest of—that my parents, everybody, the same crew that I came in with, they’re still right there.”