As reports continue to circulate on Greg Paulus' future post-Duke, I thought back to a July day two summers ago when I talked with the point guard for a feature I was working on for The Chronicle's 2007 send-home issue. We talked for a half hour and touched on the topic of football. I went back and listened to that interview this morning, and while Paulus was adamant in his commitment to Duke and basketball, there seemed to be an ever-so-slight undercurrent of missing football in the tone of his answers to me.
Is it weird watching [your brother Mike] play [football]?
It's fun watching him play. I kind of feel like I'm out there sometimes, where I'll get all excited or I'm reading the defense when I'm watching it or I'm trying to think what he's thinking. It's a little bit different, but it's a lot of fun because I know how much fun he has out there and how much fun he has playing it.
Do you miss it?
I do. But I love the position I'm at and I love everything that's going on right now.
So you're watching the NFL Draft and you see Brady Quinn sitting around and you're thinking about how there's going to be a new quarterback at Notre Dame next year and it doesn't cross your mind once?
[Laughs loudly mid-question] No. I'm focused on basketball only and just trying to hopefully get a chance to do what Brady Quinn did in two years.
After your Duke career, what do you want? Where do you see yourself?
I would love to play in the NBA, and that's what I'd like to work towards.
I know the excerpt above doesn't really give a better indication of Paulus' current state of mind, but looking back, it does provide some context to his current situation. And maybe it's appropriate that the most visible of Duke seniors is facing what we all are—uncertainty—as we near our graduation.
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