Chris Paul is what’s known as a basketball lifer. This guy has played 20 seasons in the NBA for a whopping seven different teams, and there’s a very good chance now that he finished his one-year deal with the Spurs that he’s about to make stop number eight.
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Father Time spares no man, but Paul has been able to keep him at bay, defying the traditional point guard career arc. He averaged 8.8 points and 7.4 assists per game last year, and most impressively, he played in all 82 games for just the second time in his career.
Paul sat down with Spolitics podcast host Jemele Hill at the American Black Film Festival in Miami this weekend, and despite admitting that he had no idea where he was going to play next season, he still gave some sharp insight into what the end of his career is going to look like.
“The plan is to play,” Paul said about next year, before telling Hill and the assembled crowd that his family is going to play a large role in determining where that happens. “My wife and my kids are in L.A., and the past six seasons, I’ve played in Oklahoma first, then Phoenix for three years, Golden State for a year, and then San Antonio last year.”
“My wife and my kids have been in L.A. all six of those years, so that’s tough. I love to play basketball, but I love my kids and my family more, so that is gonna weigh a huge part on my decision on what happens next year.”
Both the Lakers and Clippers have primary ball-handlers in Luka Doncic and James Harden, but given Paul’s shaky history with Harden when they were teammates in Houston, that could take the Clippers out of the running for his services. On the Lakers, he could finally join up with his buddy LeBron James while slotting in nicely as a backup point guard and a valued veteran presence in the locker room.
We don’t know how much longer LeBron will continue to play, but Paul was clear that, for him, next season will be his last. When asked how much longer he planned to play, he responded, “At most a year. I just finished my 20th season, which is a blessing in itself. I’ve been in the NBA more than half my life, which is a blessing, but these years, you do not get back with your kids, with your family.”
Paul isn’t the MVP candidate he once was, but he can still bring a lot to a team, whether it be a title contender looking for depth and leadership or a young team in need of a mentor.
Paul was part of a trade way back in 2011 that would have sent him to the Lakers before it was ultimately vetoed by then-NBA commissioner David Stern. If the Lakers come calling once again, it could close that loop and be a fitting end to his legendary career while finally allowing him to stay close to his family.
