[Chris Paul]: This is it! After over 21 years I’m stepping away from basketball. As I write this, it’s hard to really know what to feel, but for once - most people would be surprised
Chris Paul Statement:
This is it! After over 21 years I’m stepping away from basketball. 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 lol! But, mostly I’m filled with so much joy and gratitude! While this chapter of being an “NBA player” is done, the game of basketball will forever be engrained in the DNA of my life. I’ve been in the NBA for more than half of my life, spanning three decades. It’s crazy even saying that!! Playing basketball for a living has been an unbelievable blessing that also came with lots of responsibility. I embraced it all. The good and the bad. As a lifelong learner, leadership is hard and is not for the weak. Some will like you and many people won’t. But the goal was always the goal, and my intentions were always sincere (Damn, I love competing!!)
It feels really good knowing that I played and treated this game with the utmost respect since the day my dad introduced to me to it. It was the very first relationship I ever knew. Basketball gav me a reason to wake up at 5am and work out before school. It gave me a reason to find a way to get to the YMCA on snow days even when the roads were icy. It gave me a reason to be the little brother always trying to beat his big brother. It gave me a reason to earn good grades so I could have a chance to play in college. It gave me a reason to to score 61 points in a game even though my grandfather had just been killed. It gave me a reason to show up and rehab day after day after the meniscus tear, the jones fracture, the separated shoulder and the 5 hand surgeries…
The game always gave me a reason to SHOW UP!!! And the true leaders and fighters know that that right there - showing up - is half of the battle. So now with all the gratitude that I could possibly have… it’s time for me to show up for others and in other ways. This last season I knew I couldn’t do it unless I was at home with my family. Those six years away were a lot of sacrifice for all of us and I knew that had to come to an end. And I now know wholeheartedly the best teammate I can be is to Jada, Chris II and Cam!!
I am so excited to take with me to the next chapter all the incredible things basketball has taught me. And more importantly that the people I have been blessed to meet through basketball have taught me. To all the teammates, coaches, staff, executives and most of all family. I can’t begin to thank you enough…but the good news is I’ll now have much more time to start! And the biggest thanks of all goes to the man upstairs…if you know this and are reading feel free to finish…“God is Good, All the Time and All the Time…..”
Screenshots in case Instagram is behind a login wall: https://imgur.com/a/eWoMQr1
Instagram / official post:
First slide: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtPyqHiaxe/?img_index=1
Second slide: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtPyqHiaxe/?img_index=2
Third slide: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtPyqHiaxe/?img_index=3
Last slide: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtPyqHiaxe/?img_index=4