According to nba.com on Friday, future basketball Hall of Famer Chris Paul retired at the age of 40. The news should not be a huge surprise because the 12-time All-Star was released by the Clippers on December 3.
Even though Paul was released, he was technically still part of the Clippers organization, and was traded to the Toronto Raptors on February 5. However, the transaction was done for financial reasons as Paul has no intention of playing professional basketball in Canada. Toronto made the deal to get out of luxury tax trouble and the deal cleared $7 million from the Clippers payroll according to the Canadian Press.
Paul had every intention that this would be his final NBA season. Now he has decided to retire at the All-Star break rather than pursue other possibilities.
In his NBA career, Paul was second all-time in assists with 12552, and second all-time in steals with 2728. He played 21 NBA seasons overall. Paul was with the Oklahoma City Hornets from 2005 to 2007, the New Orleans Hornets from 2007 to 2011, the Los Angeles Clippers from 2011 to 2017 and again in 2025, the Houston Rockets from 2017 to 2019, the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2019 to 2020, the Phoenix Suns from 2020 to 2023, the Golden State Warriors from 2023 to 2024, and the San Antonio Spurs from 2024 to 2025.
Paul will be considered one of the greatest point guards of all-time. He led the NBA in assists per game five times and steals per game six times, and was rookie of the year with the Oklahoma City Hornets in 2005-06. Paul averaged 16.8 points per game, 9.2 assists per game, 4.4 rebounds per game and two steals per game. Paul had a field goal percentage of .469, three point percentage of .370. and free throw percentage of .870.
