Clippers’ Chris Paul to retire after season, sources say

LA Clippers guard Chris Paul is retiring after this season, his 21st NBA campaign, sources told ESPN on Saturday.

Paul, 40, is a 12-time All-Star, an 11-time member of All-NBA teams, a nine-time All-Defensive teams member, the 2006 Rookie of the Year and a member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.

It was believed this was likely Paul’s final season in the league, and on Saturday morning, he posted on social media: “What a ride…Still so much left…GRATEFUL for this last one!!”

Paul returned to his home state of North Carolina as the Clippers play the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday afternoon. Paul did not speak before the game, in which he had three points and eight assists in a 131-116 Clippers win.

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Nicknamed “the Point God,” Paul is the NBA’s active leader in assists and steals and is second all time in both behind John Stockton. He has led the league in assists per game five times and in steals per game in six seasons. He averaged double-digit assists in seven seasons.

Paul was selected with the fourth overall pick out of Wake Forest by New Orleans in the 2005 draft and has averaged 16.9 points and 9.2 assists per game over his career entering Saturday. He and LeBron James are the only two players in NBA history to reach both the 20,000 career points and 10,000 career assists milestones.

He spent six years with the Hornets before a famously voided trade to the Los Angeles Lakers ultimately landed Paul with the Clippers. Paul teamed up with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan and birthed the Lob City era of the Clippers, which brought the franchise its longest sustained run of success.

After six years with the Clippers, Paul was traded to the Houston Rockets and paired with James Harden. While the Rockets experienced great success in the regular season, they failed to have a postseason breakthrough, getting eliminated by the Golden State Warriors in consecutive seasons.

TotalRankAssists12,5322ndSteals2,7272ndSeasons21T-3rd* Nine-time All-Defense, T-2nd among guards
— ESPN Research

Following two years in Houston, Paul was traded to Oklahoma City in a deal that sent Thunder franchise cornerstone Russell Westbrook to Houston as part of the fallout from Paul George being traded to the Clippers to join Kawhi Leonard. Paul spent only one season in Oklahoma City, but while there, he mentored a young Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and helped the Thunder reach the postseason.

Paul’s season in Oklahoma City was followed by three seasons with the Phoenix Suns. His time in Phoenix was highlighted by Paul’s only appearance in the NBA Finals (2021), a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in six games.

Two seasons after that Finals defeat, Paul landed with the Warriors, playing one season for the same franchise that had been a frequent thorn in his side. After serving predominantly as a reserve for the first time in his career, Paul moved on to the San Antonio Spurs to provide a veteran presence last season for a rebuilding team led by Victor Wembanyama.

Paul, who will turn 41 in May, reunited with the Clippers in the offseason and has appeared in 11 games.

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