Clippers’ Chris Paul prioritizes winning a championship over MVP award

Chris Paul is widely considered one of the best point guards to ever play the game, yet he has never won an NBA MVP award.

Paul is the only player in the NBA who is averaging at least 18.5 points, 10 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals a game. He leads the league in assists (10.2) and assists/turnover ratio (4.24).

Paul said he’d like to win the MVP award, but he has his sights set on another award that’s eluded him throughout his 10 seasons in the league.

“It would be nice, but I’ll take a championship,” Paul said. “I’ll take that over anything and everything.”

Paul performs at such a high level night in and night out, that Clippers’ Coach Doc Rivers thinks people overlook him because he’s so consistent.

The Clippers’ point guard was named the Western Conference player of the week after averaging 26 points, 11.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds and two steals from March 16-22, helping the Clippers go 4-0 over that period.

When Rivers was told of that accomplishment, he laughed.

“I’m actually surprised that anyone noticed,” Rivers said Saturday. “He’s been doing this for a month now, and it’s gone unnoticed.”

When Paul was asked if he thinks he will ever get MVP recognition, he said he wasn’t sure.

“I’m not even worried about it right now,” he said.

After all, the Clippers (46-25) are in fifth place in the Western Conference with only 10 games remaining in the regular season and a real shot to secure home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Twitter: @melissarohlin