He strongly hinted earlier this season<\/a> that this year was going to be his last. Paul was a four-time All-NBA first team selection, and he ranks second in NBA history with 12,552 assists and 2,728 steals. He was the first player to score at least 20,000 points while recording at least 10,000 assists; LeBron James and Russell Westbrook have both since done that as well.<\/p>\n\u201cIt feels really good knowing that I played and treated this game with the utmost respect since the day my dad introduced me to it,\u201d Paul wrote. \u201cIt was the very first relationship I ever knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul played for New Orleans, Houston, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Golden State, San Antonio and the Clippers during his career, spending the last four years with four different teams.<\/p>\n
He also was a past president of the National Basketball Players Association \u2014 instrumental in getting the league through the bubble season when the pandemic struck in 2020 \u2014 and championed the NBA establishing better ties with Historically Black Colleges and Universities.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the moment he entered the league, Chris distinguished himself with his savvy playmaking skills, elite competitiveness and intense work ethic,\u201d NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement, in which he called Paul \u201cone of the greatest point guards in NBA history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul is 15th all-time in regular-season games played and 36th in points, was a six-time steals champion, five-time assists champion, a nine-time All-Defensive team pick, 11-time All-NBA selection and was part of the NBA\u2019s 75th anniversary team.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s one of six players in NBA history to have reached $400 million in career earnings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been playing basketball since I was 4 years old, and there\u2019s nothing other than my family that brings me more joy than the hard work and all that stuff that goes into it,\u201d he said in 2024. \u201cYeah, that\u2019s why we get to play a child\u2019s game and say it\u2019s my way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul became arguably the most accomplished player in Clippers franchise history while leading the team to six winning seasons from 2011-17, including the Clippers\u2019 first two Pacific Division titles and three playoff series victories. Paul returned to Los Angeles as a free agent last July, rejoining a franchise where he is loved by fans \u2014 but it went bad quickly, and Paul\u2019s last game with the Clippers was Dec. 1.<\/p>\n
It turned out to be his last NBA game, period.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this chapter of being an \u2018NBA player\u2019 is done, the game of basketball will forever be engrained in the DNA of my life, spanning three decades,\u201d Paul wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy even saying that!! Playing basketball for a living has been an unbelievable blessing that also came with lost of responsibility. I embraced it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul is one of seven players to have an NBA career span at least 21 seasons. And he\u2019s already in the Hall of Fame: the 2008 Olympic \u2018Redeem Team\u2019 was enshrined as part of the 2025 class. It won\u2019t be long before he goes in on his own as well.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Paul, the \u201cPoint God\u201d who was a 12-time All-Star selection and two-time Olympic gold medalist, announced his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[2214,3376,7,160,2596,559,4034,192,4032,185,251,135,4033,4031,6,446,1567,1773,254,969,75525,66,680],"class_list":{"0":"post-602939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-adam-silver","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-chris-paul","13":"tag-clippers","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-clippers","16":"tag-laclippers","17":"tag-lebron-james","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-losangelesclippers","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nba-basketball","24":"tag-nc-state-wire","25":"tag-north-carolina","26":"tag-russell-westbrook","27":"tag-san-antonio","28":"tag-send-to-apple-news","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-toronto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116069727507665193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}