Chris Paul retiring after season to end legendary 21-year NBA run

This will be Chris Paul’s last rodeo.

The longtime NBA star, currently with the Clippers, is retiring after the season, he announced Saturday.

“What a ride,” Paul wrote on X. “Still so much left…GRATEFUL for this last one!!”

In his 21st season in the league, Paul is back with the Clippers, where he previously spent six seasons from 2011-17.

Paul, 40, is a 12-time All-Star, 11-time All-NBA member, nine-time All-Defense member and was the 2006 Rookie of the Year.

He will likely end his career without ever winning a championship, though, as the Clippers have struggled to start the year, entering Saturday with a 4-11 record.

Paul was drafted with the No. 4 pick by then-New Orleans Hornets in 2005 and spent the first six years of his career with the team.

He then spent the next six years with the Clippers, part of the famous “Lob City” core that included Blake Griffen and DeAndre Jordan.

He then had a two-year stint with the Rockets, where he and James Harden reached the conference finals in 2017-18 before being eliminated by the Warriors in seven games.

Then came a one-year stint with the Thunder before a three-year tenure with the Suns, where he reached the finals alongside Devin Booker in 2020-21 before losing to the Bucks in six games.

After the Suns, he spent one season with the Warriors and Spurs apiece before returning to the Clippers this year.

Paul was also involved in one of the most infamous sagas in recent memory.

The Hornets, who were owned by the NBA at the time agreed to trade him to the Lakers as part of a three-team deal in December of 2011, but then-commissioner David Stern vetoed the deal that would have paired Paul with Kobe Bryant.

A few days later, he was traded to the Clippers.

Paul ranks second in NBA history in both assists and steals, behind only John Stockton in both.