Chris Paul Hosts Charity Bowling Tournament with LeBron, Gay, Wade, Durant

We all know Chris Paul.

He is the New Orleans Hornets' star point guard.

CP3, as he is called because of his initials and number, and he is the third Paul to have the initials C.P., led the Hornets to a second place finish in the "Wild West of 2007-08."

Paul is a tremendous point guard, basketball player, and overall athlete.

One thing that most people don't know is that CP3 has a passion for bowling.

During a commercial break in today's Giants' game, I was flipping through the channels and saw PBA Bowling on ESPN. Something possessed me to click the 'select' button on my remote, and I was pleasantly surprised to find Rudy Gay, of the Memphis Grizzlies, bowl a strike.

Perplexed as to why Rudy Gay was participating in what I thought was a Professional Bowling competition, I doubled clicked the 'info' button. It was then that I found out that Chris Paul hosted a bowling tournament in his hometown of Winston-Salem, NC.

Paul invited fellow NBA players LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Durant, and Gay to participate in the tournament that had CP3 as its No.1 seed. The five NBA stars paired up with five of the best PBA bowlers.

I missed the first match, but as I said, I arrived at ESPN in time to see Gay knock down all ten pins. A celebratory mimic of "The Soulja Boy Dance" followed, and he was jokingly laughed at by Paul and James.

PBA bowler Doug Kent followed Gay with a strike of his own.

Then, it was Durant's turn.

The second year forward was wearing baggy jeans, a long-short-sleeved shirt, and a baseball cap with the brim pointing up and to the side. Durant looked like a normal teenager you would bump into on the street.

Promptly after picking up his bowling ball, Durant hastily walked to the edge of the lane and bowled his ball with no form or technique, whatsoever. Again, Paul and James rocked back and forth, covering their laughing mouths with their hands.

The announcers brought CP3 to the announcer's table, where Paul explained what this tournament was all about. Paul is very gracious to his two communities, both his hometown and New Orleans, and started the CP3 Foundation, which is a foundation that raises money to help various causes.

Among the charities that Paul has supported with the money raised by his foundation are Feed the Children, the Special Olympics of North Carolina, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Meals On Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, and The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club.

The bowling event was Paul's attempt to raise money for his foundation. He did not mention how the foundation would raise money, but there was a crowd of a decent size and the tournament was televised on ESPN.

Other than trying to raise money for charity, Paul left viewers with the opportunity to see NBA stars in a different environment. I know I enjoyed seeing Gay dance, Durant luckily score nothing less than a spare, and LeBron do his pre-game chalk routine, for a bowling match. Unfortunately, I did not see Paul or Wade bowl.

The tournament was filmed on September 20, 2008, but was not aired on ESPN until October 19.

This is just another example of NBA players knowing how lucky they are, and recognizing that not everyone has the same good fortune as them.