Chris Paul expects to retire in 'maybe a year or 2'
Chris Paul believes he could be concluding his NBA career in the near future.
"Maybe a year or two, I'm still trying to feel it out," the San Antonio Spurs guard told franchise great Tony Parker in a recent interview. "I think, at this point, the hardest part is - like I love this: practice today, all that, I love hooping. I love all of that.
"The hardest part is when I get home and I got to to watch my kids' games on the iPad or what not so that's the tug-of-war right now."
Paul is in Year 20 of his professional career but his first with San Antonio after signing a $10.5-million deal for the season in the summer. The 39-year-old scored just three points in each of his first two games but appears to have settled in, averaging 10.9 points, 8.5 assists, and 1.5 steals in the 22 contests since. He's also yet to miss a free throw in 35 attempts this season.
San Antonio is the seventh different stop for the 12-time All-Star, who entered the league with the then-New Orleans Hornets as the fourth overall pick in 2005. He spent six years with the franchise before being sent to the Clippers, where he was frequently in the MVP conversation during his half-dozen seasons in L.A. Paul then played multiple seasons for the Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns, interspersed by single-year stints with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors.
"While I came into the league and was thinking, 'I'm only going to play for one team,' like (Tim Duncan), like Kobe (Bryant), Dirk (Nowitzki), and all that, I'm actually grateful that I had the opportunity to play for these different teams now because I learned so much," Paul told Parker.
He added: "So now, I feel like if I do get team ownership or have a team, I've learned so much from all these different places that I would want to put into a team."
Paul now ranks second all time in assists with 12,099 after passing Jason Kidd during Sunday's over the New Orleans Pelicans. He broke the tie with Kidd on an inbound pass that set up a three by Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama, with whom Paul is still trying to familiarize himself.
"In our game, when we were coming up, we usually handled it in the pick-and-roll. ... So now, having 7-foot-5 that can handle the ball, and I'm setting screens for him, learning how to roll."