On the midst of all the exciting action that has been going on in college basketball over the last few weeks it has drawn attention away from the NBA. However, last night Chris Paul nearly reached an achievement that can not go unnoticed. The New Orleans Hornets got a big victory over the Philadelphia 76ers last night 101-86 and closed to only one game behind the San Antonio Spurs in the Southwest Division Standings. Hornets’ star point guard and last year’s MVP candidate Chris Paul nearly made history by earning a rare quadruple-double in his magnificent performance against the 76ers on Monday night.

Chris Paul has been extraordinary over the last two seasons running the New Orleans offense from the guard position. Outside of his tremendous ability to score at anytime and post big number Paul gains a lot of recognition from his ability to lift the other players around him. Paul leads the NBA this season with 11 assist and sports a double-double average with 21 points as well per game. However, on Monday night Chris Paul elevated his game even more. The playmaker out of Wake Forest got off to a fast start and showed how valuable he is on every end of the court. Paul racked up 15 assist by the end of the night along, 10 rebounds, 7 steals, and 27 points barely missing a rare quadruple double. It was quite apparent that Paul was running the show and to even have the quadruple double talk discussed is quite an accomplishment in itself.

For Chris Paul, the game marked his 3^rd triple double of the month and also the second time this month where he has accumulated 7 steals. Paul is known for his ability to swipe the ball on defense and of course has led the league for some time in the assist category. However, when Paul put them all together in what turned out to be a brilliantly played game. Paul came up nearly 3 steals away from achieving the quadruple-double. While it may sound far fetched to ask for 3 more steals, Paul performance proved to be one of the better games all around in NBA history not to mention how many fantasy players cashed in huge points last night off his feat.

So how big is the seemingly impossible quadruple double? Actually if Chris Paul could have got the 3 more steals last night, it would have only been the 5^th time in NBA History a player reached the quadruple double. 4 players have reached the quadruple double throughout the history of the NBA and only 1 player has accomplished the milestone including the steals category by the way of Alvin Robertson of the Spurs back in 1986. The other 3 players reached the accomplishment through earning more than 10 in the blocks category. Paul would have been the first player to reach this feat in the last 15 years considering the last quadruple double came in 1994 by David Robinson another Spurs player. The first ever player to reach the quadruple double was Chicago Bulls’ Nate Thurmond by in 1974 and the only other player to earn the accomplishment was NBA great Hakeem Olajuwon back in 1990.

While Paul’s performance will likely be forgotten in the next few games, it should gain some respect and marvel those NBA enthusiast that love rare accomplishments. Despite failing to actually get the quadruple double, Chris Paul deserves all the attention for getting near the feat in today’s NBA game that is usually conquered by players trying to score as many points as possible. However, Paul proves time and time again that he is a true team player that will do whatever it takes to get the win for his team. The little guy is fun to watch and so is the race in the Southwest between the Hornets and the Spurs. After a few days of wild College Basketball action seemingly drowned out the NBA play, Chris Paul delivers a big game and gets the attention back towards the NBA.