{"id":604594,"date":"2026-02-15T13:46:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604594\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T13:46:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:46:33","slug":"waived-by-toronto-raptors-chris-paul-announces-retirement-after-21-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604594\/","title":{"rendered":"Waived by Toronto Raptors, Chris Paul announces retirement after 21 seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Paul<\/a>\u2019s time in the NBA is over.<\/p>\n

The 12-time All-Star point guard announced his retirement on Friday after 21 seasons.<\/p>\n

Paul, 40, had returned to the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> this season, but was sent home from the team in December after 16 games played. He was traded to the Toronto Raptors<\/a> at the trade deadline earlier this month. But it was a paper transaction with Paul never expected to report. The team waived him earlier on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is it! After over 21 years I\u2019m stepping away from basketball,\u201d Paul wrote on Instagram. \u201cAs I write this, it\u2019s hard to really know what to feel, but for once – most people would be surprised – I don\u2019t have the answer lol! But, mostly I\u2019m filled with so much joy and gratitude! While this chapter of being an \u201cNBA player\u201d is done, the game of basketball will forever be engrained in the DNA of my life. I\u2019ve been in the NBA for more than half of my life, spanning three decades. It\u2019s crazy even saying that!!<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying basketball for a living has been an unbelievable blessing that also came with lots of responsibility. I embraced it all. The good and the bad. As a lifelong learner, leadership is hard and is not for the weak. Some will like you and many people won\u2019t. But the goal was always the goal, and my intentions were always sincere (Damn, I love competing!!)\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of Winston-Salem, NC, Paul was the fourth overall pick of the 2005 NBA Draft out of Wake Forest by the New Orleans Hornets. In 2011, Paul was traded to the Clippers where he would emerge as one of the game\u2019s finest guards as part of \u201cLob City\u201d alongside Blake Griffin<\/a> and DeAndre Jordan<\/a>. But playoff success proved to be elusive with the team never reaching beyond a Western Conference semi-final.<\/p>\n

Paul would be dealt to the Houston Rockets<\/a> in 2018, beginning a series of short stints for the rest of his career that also saw stops with the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, Phoenix Suns<\/a>, Golden State Warriors<\/a> and San Antonio Spurs<\/a>. Paul would finally play in an NBA Finals in 2021 as a member of the Suns, ultimately falling to the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> in six games. Paul played well in that series, averaging 21.8 points and a series-high 8.2 assists per game.<\/p>\n

Paul finishes his career averaging 16.8 points on .469 shooting, including .370 from three, 9.2 assists and 4.4 boards over 33.5 minutes a night.<\/p>\n

Internationally, Paul represented the United States on a number of occasions, winning gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Paul\u2019s time in the NBA is over. The 12-time All-Star point guard announced his retirement on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[23475,7,80585,46517,6,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-604594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-chris-paul-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-229598","11":"tag-los-angeles-clippers-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-12","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-raptors","14":"tag-toronto","15":"tag-toronto-raptors","16":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116074957228469899","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604594","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=604594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}