Former NBA point guard Jeff Teague has raised some eyebrows by dishing quite an interesting take on his Club 520 Podcast. Teague stated that Chris Paul has had a better career than the great Allen Iverson.
“Chris Paul is just as good as Allen Iverson bro,” Teague said. “… His career is better than Allen Iverson’s… He ain’t more influential than AI, no way… But his career?”
(starts at 4:32 mark):
Teague can be accused of being a little bit biased here perhaps. The reason being that both he and Paul went to Wake Forest. The Golden State Warriors guard played for the college from 2003 to 2005 while Teague was there from 2007 to 2009.
This whole topic came up as a result of Teague claiming that Wake Forest was better than Georgetown. His co-host Bishop B Henn. felt they just didn’t have someone like Iverson but Teague felt Paul was just as good as him.
Comparing Chris Paul And Allen Iverson’s Careers
I’m sure that some of you, at first glance, might have felt that was a ridiculous take from Teague. That might not necessarily be the case, though, as here’s a look at Paul and Iverson’s accomplishments and career stats.
Chris Paul’s accomplishments: 12x All-Star, 4x All-NBA First Team, 5x All-NBA Second Team, 2x All-NBA Third Team, 7x NBA All-Defensive First Team, 2x NBA All-Defensive Second Team, 5x NBA assists leader, 6x NBA steals leader
Allen Iverson’s accomplishments: 11x All-Star, 3x All-NBA First Team, 3x All-NBA Second Team, 1x All-NBA Third Team, 4x scoring champion, 3x NBA steals leader
Chris Paul’s career stats: 17.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 9.4 assists, 2.1 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game
Allen Iverson’s career stats: 26.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 2.2 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game
Paul does get the better of Iverson when you look at their accomplishments. He has one more All-Star appearance and made the All-NBA teams quite a few more times. Also, Paul was a fixture on the All-Defensive teams at his peak while Iverson wasn’t really a good defender at any stage of his career.
As for the career stats, Paul and Iverson being so different makes comparing them a bit difficult. The former is a pure point guard while the latter was more of a shooting guard. It shows with one winning all those assists titles while the other won scoring ones.
When it comes to championships, neither has managed to win the ultimate prize. The closest Iverson ever got was when he led the Philadelphia 76ers to the 2001 NBA Finals. They faced the Los Angeles Lakers there and lost in five games.
Paul also made the NBA Finals once, in 2021 with the Phoenix Suns. It seemed like he and the Suns were on their way to winning their first championship when they went up 2-0 against the Milwaukee Bucks, but they then lost the next four games to lose the series in six. Paul still could win a title at some point, but I don’t like his chances.
With all that being said, who comes out on top? Well, I think I would pick Paul over Iverson when looking at the careers. There isn’t much to separate them, though.
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