SWITCHING SIDES
Del Olaleye: Sports fans and announcers have selective memories when a player is on their team (yes, this is about Chris Paul)
Del Olaleye
Feb 13, 2018, 7:54 pm
Chris Paul has never been a nice guy on the court. Houston Rockets/Facebook
Sports fans’ memories can be selectively short. As passionate as we can be, our sports moral compass lacks a due north far more often than we would like to admit. Our team’s success comes first, hypocrisy be damned. I’ve chronicled sports hate in the past and I fully embrace that aspect of fandom. In contrast there is an uglier, dirtier and rarely talked about phenomenon called sports forgiveness that seems to have taken hold in Houston and I won’t suffer it. I made that term up so don’t try fighting me on the definition. Sports forgiveness as defined by the Del Olaleye Dictionary can be described as “A complete change of heart about a rival player. This change of heart might even be described as selective amnesia.” This change of heart occurs the minute a once hated player joins your favorite team. We’re all guilty of this, but there is one group who is most at fault and they feel no apparent shame for their betrayal.
Announcers for your favorite team are the main culprits. They appear to be predisposed to forgetting the previous shade they’ve thrown at a player simply because he has their employer’s uniform on. As my radio co-host Raheel Ramzanali pointed out, Chris Paul has all of sudden had his past transgressions wiped clean because he now wears a Rockets uniform. In a recent broadcast, former Rockets great Clyde Drexler disputed a technical foul call levied against Paul due to the new Rockets point guard’s apparent sterling reputation on the court. If there was a way to correctly convey the “Nick Young Face” meme in words I’d do it. Absent of that I’ll just provide the meme here. If you simply google “Chris Paul dirty” the articles will start flowing. One publication named Paul “NBA’s Master of the Low Blow.” I’m just guessing here, but maybe -- just maybe -- Mr. Drexler is a bit off base in his assessment.
The retcon of Chris Paul’s past is understandable. If Paul played for your favorite team you would forget that he is the new John Stockton, too. None of us is above it. Winning is the thing and he is an elite player whose acquisition has firmly put the Rockets in the best teams in the NBA discussion. We should still at least try to be better. Lets not pretend he is something he isn’t. Acknowledge that he has a groin punching past and keep it moving. No need to lie to ourselves and others. Would a Texans fan pretend that Cortland Finnegan wasn’t what he was? Did you enjoy watching Andre Johnson connect on a punch to Finnegan’s skull? If Finnegan was an elite player and the Texans acquired him, would you just have happily swallowed the Texans play-by-play announcer defending Finnegan after a personal foul penalty? That scenario would definitely happen. You just don’t have to be the fan that nods their head in approval. Don’t be that fan.
We’re all put into a position where guys we once rooted against are now guys we root for. That is just the current sports landscape messing with our fandoms. You might have laughed at Trevor Ariza missing a jumper when he is on the Lakers in 2009 and then cheered for him as a Rockets player months later that same year. That is acceptable. I don’t think Ariza makes anyone’s “never root for” list. Every fan should have one of those. That list consists of players that will never get love if they join your team. You’ve drawn a firm line and you pray your favorite team doesn’t force you to approach that line.
Matt Barnes was a popular choice when this topic was discussed on the Raheel and Del show.
Derek Fisher’s cheap shot to Luis Scola earned him a place on several people’s list as well. Would you tolerate Craig Ackerman, Matt Bullard and Bill Worrell defending Fisher or Barnes if they put on a Rockets jersey? They would, by the way. There is absolutely no shame in the local announcer game. Don’t allow their homerism to make you forget. Chris Paul has been hitting people in their Spaldings since college. Cheering for Paul isn’t wrong but never forget.
You weren’t in a coma during Paul’s first twelve seasons in the NBA. You know what he is. Don’t pretend that you don’t.
It’s May 1, and the Astros are turning heads—but not for the reasons anyone expected. Their resurgence, driven not by stars like Yordan Alvarez or Christian Walker, but by a cast of less-heralded names, is writing a strange and telling early-season story.
Christian Walker, brought in to add middle-of-the-order thump, has yet to resemble the feared hitter he was in Arizona. Forget the narrative of a slow starter—he’s never looked like this in April. Through March and April of 2025, he’s slashing a worrying .196/.277/.355 with a .632 OPS. Compare that to the same stretch in 2024, when he posted a .283 average, .496 slug, and a robust .890 OPS, and it becomes clear: this is something more than rust. Even in 2023, his April numbers (.248/.714 OPS) looked steadier.
What’s more troubling than the overall dip is when it’s happening. Walker is faltering in the biggest moments. With runners in scoring position, he’s hitting just .143 over 33 plate appearances, including 15 strikeouts. The struggles get even more glaring with two outs—.125 average, .188 slugging, and a .451 OPS in 19 such plate appearances. In “late and close” situations, when the pressure’s highest, he’s practically disappeared: 1-for-18 with a .056 average and a .167 OPS.
His patience has waned (only 9 walks so far, compared to 20 by this time last year), and for now, his presence in the lineup feels more like a placeholder than a pillar.
The contrast couldn’t be clearer when you look at José Altuve—long the engine of this franchise—who, in 2024, delivered in the moments Walker is now missing. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Altuve hit .275 with an .888 OPS. In late and close situations, he thrived with a .314 average and .854 OPS. That kind of situational excellence is missing from this 2025 squad—but someone else may yet step into that role.
And yet—the Astros are winning. Not because of Walker, but in spite of him.
Houston’s offense, in general, hasn’t lit up the leaderboard. Their team OPS ranks 23rd (.667), their slugging 25th (.357), and they sit just 22nd in runs scored (117). They’re 26th in doubles, a rare place for a team built on gap-to-gap damage.
But where there’s been light, it hasn’t come from the usual spots. Jeremy Peña, often overshadowed in a lineup full of stars, now boasts the team’s highest OPS at .791 (Isaac Paredes is second in OPS) and is flourishing in his new role as the leadoff hitter. Peña’s balance of speed, contact, aggression, and timely power has given Houston a surprising tone-setter at the top.
Even more surprising: four Astros currently have more home runs than Yordan Alvarez.
And then there’s the pitching—Houston’s anchor. The rotation and bullpen have been elite, ranking 5th in ERA (3.23), 1st in WHIP (1.08), and 4th in batting average against (.212). In a season where offense is lagging and clutch hits are rare, the arms have made all the difference.
For now, it’s the unexpected contributors keeping Houston afloat. Peña’s emergence. A rock-solid pitching staff. Role players stepping up in quiet but crucial ways. They’re not dominating, but they’re grinding—and in a sluggish AL West, that may be enough.
Walker still has time to find his swing. He showed some signs of life against Toronto and Detroit. If he does, the Astros could become dangerous. If he doesn’t, the turnaround we’re witnessing will be credited to a new cast of unlikely faces. And maybe, that’s the story that needed to be written.
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