Point guard Chris Paul is one of the most intriguing NBA free agents this cycle. While he’s now 40 years old, he’s a future Hall of Famer that played all 82 games last season for the San Antonio Spurs and can clearly still contribute for a contender.
Still, the question has to be asked: How long can Paul keep playing? That’s what he addressed during a recent interview with Jemele Hill.
“At the most a year,” Paul responded. “You know I just finished my 20th season, which is a blessing in itself.”
It would appear Paul has officially announced that this will be his final NBA season.
This is an interesting development since Paul told Andscape’s Marc Spears just two months ago that, “I’m going to keep playing, I think.”
“At the end of every season, I evaluate everything,” Paul said. “Evaluate playing. Evaluate how my body feels. But the more years that go by, it’s more conversations with my family, with my kids. They have a lot of say so. They got a lot of input.
“Obviously, I got a lot of homies, friends that have retired or whatnot. And they are always like, ‘Man, play as long as you possibly can. Play as long as you possibly can.’ And I appreciate that. But I also, I just always want to talk to my kids about it because that’s the most important job that I have. I love to play. I definitely love my kids and my family more than I like to play. Anybody who’s in this knows the sacrifice could goes longer. I said this summer I will evaluate it and talk to my family about it.”
Paul is the third-oldest player in the NBA behind LeBron James and P.J. Tucker. The former No. 4 overall pick of the New Orleans Hornets is a 12-time All Star, and one of just two players in NBA history to score 20,000 points and dish out 10,000 assists, the other being LeBron. Paul is a five-time assist champ, six-time steal champ and ranks No. 2 in both categories all-time. His 12,499 assists trail just John Stockton’s 15,806 assists, and his 2,717 steals trail Stockton’s 3,265 steals. Paul did average a career-low 8.8 points per game last season while shooting 43% from the field, but the fact that he started in all 82 games was impressive.
It was understood that 2025-26 was likely Paul’s swan song. Now, it just remains to be seen for whom he will be playing.
