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Anthony Gharib, ESPN
Chris Paul passed Jason Kidd on Sunday for second on the NBA’s all-time assists leaderboard, and the San Antonio Spurs rewarded him with a neat tribute Monday.
Paul reached the 12,092-assist milestone with his third assist of the game — a pass that resulted in a 3-pointer for Victor Wembanyama.
The Spurs celebrated Paul in the locker room postgame, then gifted him a basketball and a plaque with the names of each player he has assisted. He was moved to tears when talking to the team afterward about the achievement.
“I can’t say nothing but thank you. Seriously, seriously man. I know I’m hard to deal with a lot of times. I swear man, I’m so grateful,” he said. “To be away from my family, y’all became my family. And so I know I’m a lot to deal with on the court, man, but I just love to hoop. And I hope that y’all get this opportunity to play as long as I have, so thank y’all so much.”
San Antonio continued to show love Monday, posting a video of a select group of Paul’s former teammates who offered their congratulations.
𝓣𝓸 𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼, 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓶 … pic.twitter.com/n5lPDuL9vG
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 9, 2024
It spanned as far back as Peja Stojakovic, Bobby Jackson and Jannero Pargo with the then-New Orleans Hornets, to Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan from the “Lob City” LA Clippers era. Recent teammates Stephen Curry and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander spoke too, as well as Wembanyama.
Griffin leads the way for the most field goals made off Paul assists with 1,157, per Elias Sports Bureau. Former Hornets teammate David West is second at 1,120, and current Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick is third at 634.
Paul has averaged double-digit assists in seven of 20 NBA seasons. He averaged fewer than seven assists per game only twice in his career — when he had 6.7 during the 2019-20 season, and 6.8 last season with the Golden State Warriors.