Spurs’ Chris Paul tears up during speech after passing Jason Kidd on NBA’s all-time assists list

When Chris Paul retires he will certainly be a first-ballot Basketball. Hall of Fame inductee. He’s among the best point guards to ever play the game, with an endless list of accolades associated with his name. And Sunday night, Paul added another milestone, as he passed Jason Kidd for second place on the NBA’s all-time career assists list.

Paul, now with the Spurs, has racked up 12,099 assists over his 20 years in the league, but it was assist No. 12,092 that leapfrogged him over Kidd on the all-time assist. It happened with 7:06 left in the second quarter, as he passed the ball to Victor Wembanyama who drained a 3-pointer off the feed.

After the game, in which the Spurs won 121-116 over the Pelicans, the team honored Paul with a framed poster that had pictures of him in the jerseys of every team he’s played for, along with the list of the 173 players players he’s assisted. Paul gave a short speech, and was visibly emotional in the moment.

“I can’t say nothing but thank you man,” Paul said. “Seriously, I know I’m hard to deal with a lot of times, I swear man I’m so grateful. To be away from my family, ya’ll became my family. I know I’m a lot to deal with on the court, but I just love to hoop, and I hope that ya’ll get this opportunity to play as long as I have. Thank ya’ll so much.”

Paul is just one of three players to rack up at least 12,000 assists in their career, and is the only player in league history to total at least 22,000 points, 12,000 assists, 5,000 rebounds and 2,000 steals over their career.

While speaking to media on Monday, Kidd, who is the coach of the Dallas Mavericks now, gave some congratulatory comments to Paul for passing him on that list.

“Well deserved,” Kidd said. “Incredible for a future Hall of Famer. Had a lot of games where he set the table for open teammates. Had a lot of great teammates. For assists, you need a partner. Congratulations to him and what he’s accomplished. He’s not done. I don’t know if he can catch [John] Stockton. I don’t think anyone can catch Stockton. Stockton’s numbers are pretty impressive but for Chris to be second, that’s big time.”

Stockton holds the all-time record for career assists at 15,806, so it would take several more seasons for Paul to come even close to that. Given that he’s already in Year 20 at 39 years old, and has tapered down in terms of production since his last All-Star season in 2022 with the Phoenix Suns, it’s safe to assume Paul won’t catch Stockton. But like Kidd said, likely no one will. So to have this feather in your cap is an immense accomplishment for Paul.