Chris Paul is a happy Hornet ... for now

As he soaked in his last afternoon of summer freedom, watching Saints-Falcons from his buddy Reggie Bush's Superdome suite, there was only one kind of commotion buzzing in Chris Paul's face.

That would be the whirlwind known as Paul's fast-moving toddler son.

The tempest surrounding Paul's future with the New Orleans Hornets has calmed considerably over the past two months. Which means that taking questions while 16-month-old Chris II paws at his nose is about as frenzied as it gets these days.

It appeared that Paul, back in late July, would be where Carmelo Anthony is now, seeing and hearing his future dissected daily as this season's answer to last season's LeBron-a-thon. Then Paul met face-to-face with his new coach and new general manager, publicly pledged to support Monty Williams and Dell Demps in their attempts to rebuild the Hornets around him and has not wavered from that declaration despite suspicions that won't go away that he wants to be elsewhere.

"It's been funny," Paul said during a brief sit-down during the Saints' overtime loss to their division rivals. "It's been funny to hear all the different things.

"You hear people say this, you hear people say that. For me, I know who I am. I've heard people question my character and my loyalty and stuff like that. The thing that I've learned is [I've] got to be who I am. At the end of the day you can't worry about what everybody's saying about you."