Chris Paul is ready to hang up his Nikes after 21 NBA seasons. Next stop: Hall of Fame.
Paul posted this on social media Saturday morning, while with the Clippers in his native North Carolina to take on the Hornets, saying he was “grateful for this last one.”
Shams Charania of ESPN and other sources confirmed that this will be Paul’s final NBA season and that he will retire at the end of it.
Paul, the best pure point guard of a generation, is an unquestioned first-ballot Hall of Famer. A member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, he is a 12-time All-Star and 11-time All-NBA player who made nine All-Defensive Teams, was the league assist leader five times and the steals leader six times, and was the 2006 NBA Rookie of the Year.
For his career, he averaged 16.9 points and 9.2 assists a game, plus shot 36.9% from 3-point range. While his best statistical seasons may have come with the Hornets, his best play came as the point guard of the Lob City Clippers in the early 2010s with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Those Clippers teams were not only highly entertaining to watch but also consistently won 50+ games and were a playoff threat (a threat that never materialized due to a combination of injuries and a couple of meltdowns).
Because CP3 played one of the highest-IQ, smartest games in the league, he had a long and productive career, leading the Phoenix Suns to the NBA Finals in 2021 in his age 35 season. His play and his mentorship have influenced countless players over the years.
“Give my credit to Chris Paul, man,” former CP3 teammate Deandre Ayton said of how he learned the short roll and how to adjust and play at a high level. “Chris Paul definitely taught me the short man role, and that high-level basketball because [the Suns] went straight to the finals with him, his first time with us.”
However, father time caught up with Paul this season, where he was back with the Clippers, coming off the bench and racking up a lot of DNPs for a team that could use a steady hand. With that, Saturday’s announcement was not a big surprise.
Paul will and should be celebrated the rest of this season, and then it is on to Springfield, Mass.
