When you're a rising NBA star with a magazine-ready smile, you get used to being ushered into private rooms at hot night spots.

The former Wake Forest standout finished second in the NBA MVP balloting in his third season with the New Orleans Hornets, but even Paul feels the zing of receiving an invitation to the USA Basketball party that will rage at the 2008 Beijing Olympics starting Aug. 10.

"One of my friends said it best when he told me this is the best team I will ever play on," Paul said about setting up Kobe Bryant and LeBron James for the U.S.

Paul, 23, first played internationally for the U.S. at the 2004 World Championship For Young Men qualifier where the U.S. won a gold. Paul made his first senior team for the 2006 World Championships in Japan after winning NBA Rookie of the Year honors.

He and Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich ran the offense in Japan but labored while adjusting to the bumping and shoving in the backcourt allowed by international officials -- more than what is allowed in the NBA.

Dallas guard Jason Kidd and Utah's Deron Williams, both physically bigger than Paul and Hinrich, were added to the national roster in 2007 to address that.

Paul said having that bronze-medal run in Japan keyed his NBA rise and prepped him for Beijing.

"Hopefully you're not so bug-eyed and not knowing what to expect in China," he said. "You understand your role better."

Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said Paul has always been a quick study, devouring the basketball world in two-year gulps: Making the West Forsyth varsity team in Clemmons as a junior, winning the ACC Rookie of the Year award two years later, the NBA Rookie of the Year award two years after that, and finishing second in the NBA MVP balloting two years after that.

"He may be one of the best five players in the world right now," said Gaudio, who was an assistant under the late Skip Prosser when Paul played at Wake.

"He has something other greats have -- a presence and charisma that allows him to say what he needs to say without others being, and I don't know if this is the right word, offended or insulted."

Paul has always been the younger guy leading older ones. He had to mature quickly as a Wake Forest sophomore. It was supposed to be a big year. In many ways -- Wake Forest earned a No. 2 seed in the 2005 NCAA Tournament -- it was.

In other ways, it was not. Against N.C. State at the end of the ACC season, Paul hit State guard Julius Hodge with a stealth jab to the groin. After making a running 10-footer to win the game, then apologizing to Hodge, Paul sat out a one-game suspension.

State beat Wake Forest in that opening-round ACC Tournament game. West Virginia then beat the Deacs 111-105 in double overtime in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Paul took the WVU loss hard. But he, Gaudio and Prosser never looked back when Paul moved on.

"This will be my 28th season in coaching, and a Chris Paul comes along maybe once every 25 years," Gaudio said.

The Hornets took Paul with the fourth overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft. In his third season, after averaging 21.1 points and 11.6 assists, Paul finished second to Bryant in the 2008 MVP race.

"It happened pretty quick," Paul said of his ascent. "But when I think back to all the times I was in the gym working, this really shows it paid off. It's not just like one day I woke up and got the opportunity."

Jerry Colangelo, men's team managing director, wanted Paul on the national team starting in 2006, to prepare him for a USA Basketball future. Colangelo said Paul's future came quicker than he anticipated. Paul will back up Kidd in Beijing and often share the backcourt with Williams.

Paul led the Hornets to an NBA playoff victory over Kidd's Dallas team, outplaying Kidd along the way. Kidd said the world is Paul's for the taking in Beijing.

"Because of his character, Chris won't rest on what he's already done," Kidd said. "And maybe you also have to look at the friendly competition between him and Deron. Those guys are the two carrying the torch of the best point guards in the league right now."

Paul says he's ready. He knows what pushes his buttons, and said it's the same thing that does it for his U.S. teammates.

"The one thing about Team USA is that we hate to lose," Paul said. "We'd hate to lose the gold more than we'd like to win it."

Paul says that's why he willingly risks injury and his NBA career for a shot at Olympic glory.

"Why not?" he said. "I love the game. I love competition. I could get hurt walking from here to the next interview. You have to take chances. If playing basketball is taking a chance, then that's the one I'll take everyday."

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.