Chris Paul retires after 21 seasons
Chris Paul is retiring from basketball after 21 seasons, he announced Friday on Instagram.
"This is it! After over 21 years I'm stepping away from basketball," the point guard wrote. "As I write this, it's hard to really know what to feel, but for once - most people would be surprised - I don't have the answer."
Paul signed a one-year, $3.6-million deal to return to the Los Angeles Clippers for the 2025-26 season. He averaged 2.9 points and 14.3 minutes per game for Tyronn Lue's squad before the team shockingly sent him home during a December road trip.
The Clippers dealt Paul to the Toronto Raptors at the trade deadline after he hadn't played for close to two months. The 40-year-old never suited up for the Raptors, who waived him earlier Friday.
The Wake Forest product was selected fourth overall by the New Orleans Hornets in the 2005 NBA Draft. He was the 2006 Rookie of the Year and went on to become a 12-time All-Star and five-time assists champion.
He ranks 16th all time in games played, appearing with the Clippers, Hornets (now Pelicans), Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Golden State Warriors.
The Point God is widely considered one of the greatest point guards of all time and was chosen as part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.