Basket Ball Z: The NBA’s finest and their Dragon Ball counterparts

Chris Paul — Vegeta

Deep apologies go out to Billy Donovan, who shares Vegeta’s pronounced widow’s peak hairline as Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer has pointed out on numerous occasions. In terms of personality though, Vegeta and Chris Paul are identical. Vegeta is perpetually grumpy, famously stubborn and utterly consumed by his self-proclaimed destiny to become the strongest fighter in the universe; he loathes those that get in his way and won’t take crap (or advice) from anyone. Chris Paul rivals that grumpiness and singular desire for victory by commanding every facet of the game (in his heyday), barking at teammates, sniping at officials and seeming genuinely pissed off in every moment of every game. For these two prodigies it their way or the highway.

Their respective careers are similar as well. For the entirety of DBZ, Vegeta basically lives in the shadow of Goku, who’s always one step ahead of him in their mutual quest to become the greatest ever. Vegeta is the consensus second best Z fighter for most of the series, which means that he’s unbelievably good. But he somehow loses almost every major fight that he takes part in. Vegeta loses to Goku, stands no chance against Frieza, gets wrecked by Cell, dies fighting Majin Buu and can barely hang with Kid Buu.

Likewise Chris Paul has never won any major team honor, he’s never even played in the Western Conference Finals! Of course that’s being unfairly harsh, but he’s got a few inexplicable collapses on his resume at this point. Despite the transcendence of the Point God, he always seems to come in second to his rivals.

And now for a stay woke moment: is CP joining the Rockets his version of Vegeta betraying the Z fighters and going Majin to defeat Goku?? Food for thought…