**By the NBA superstar: A powerful and unexpected memoir of family,
faith, tragedy, and life's most important lessons.
**
The day after future NBA superstar Chris Paul signed his letter of
intent to play college basketball for Wake Forest, he received a
world-shattering phone call. His grandfather, Nathaniel "Papa" Jones, a
pillar of the Winston-Salem community where he owned and operated the
first Black-owned service station in North Carolina, was mugged and
ultimately died from a heart attack resulting from the assault. His
funeral filled the largest church in the county, which held over one
thousand people. He was sixty-one years old.
The day after burying his grandfather, Chris was coping the best way he
knew how: by playing basketball for his high school team. After pouring
in shot after shot, his last attempt was an airball purposely flung out
of bounds from the foul line before Chris exited the game. The next day,
local news headlines declared that he fell six points shy of the
statewide single game high school scoring record. But he accomplished
exactly what he set out to do: scoring sixty-one points, one for each
year of life lived by his grandfather.
In Sixty-One, Chris opens up about life beyond basketball and the role
his grandfather played in molding him into the man and father he is
today. He'll speak about the foundation of faith and family he built his
life upon, what it means to be a positive light within your community
and beyond, and the importance of setting the proper example for future
generations. Most importantly, Chris will talk about his home,
Winston-Salem, and the close-knit family and village that raised him to
become one of the most respected leaders in all of sports.
