SAN ANTONIO — En route to Frost Bank Center late Sunday afternoon for the San Antonio Spurs game against the New Orleans Pelicans, Chris Paul needed to hear a comforting voice. He was about to play one of the most statistically meaningful games of his 20-year NBA career. He needed his grandma.
“I’ve got a praying grandma,” Paul said. “I called (her) on my way to the game and she was at church, her and my granddad. So, I know how blessed I am and how covered I am.
“Thank God for the family that I have and the support system. Those are the people who pick me up every time I’ve fallen.”
Fully at ease after that conversation, Paul then engaged in his 1,296th regular-season game of a career that has stamped him as one of the greatest facilitators in league history. Before its end, a 121-116 Spurs win, “The Point God” had leapfrogged over Jason Kidd into second place on the NBA’s list of all-time assist leaders with 12,099.
Paul’s milestone was an occasion for both celebration and reflection. His entire extended family had arrived in Alamo City to witness the feat, a joyous accomplishment that was saved from partial curdling by the clutch shooting of Spurs center Victor Wembanyama in crunchtime. The 7-foot-4 Frenchman nailed a 3-pointer with 37 seconds remaining that turned out to be the game winner.
Fittingly, it was Paul who found the wide-open Wemby for the game’s key basket.
Wembanyama had missed the previous two games with lower back pain after taking a fall in a Spurs loss in Phoenix on Dec. 3. He had played only three minutes of Sunday’s game when he exited the game after another fall, heading immediately to the Spurs locker room for treatment by the team’s medical staff.
The bated breath of nearly 17,000 attendees resumed normalcy when Wemby checked back into the game with 9 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
Count Paul among those breathing easier after Wembanyama’s return. A tad more than two minutes later, it was Wemby who caught the Paul pass that became career assist No. 12,092, one more than Kidd’s total through his 19 stellar seasons.
“He (Wembanyama) came back just in time,” Paul said of the tallest teammate with whom he has played during his time with seven different NBA teams. “I think it’s been cool to be a part of his journey. I’ve had an opportunity to be a part of a lot of great players’ journeys in my career, and to be here with Vic and to be connected to him in that way has been pretty cool.”
Wembanyama flashed a coy smile when asked about receiving the historic pass from Paul and turning it into the milestone assist.
“I didn’t realize it in the moment, but before coming in the game, I was thinking, ‘OK, I’ve got to get that; I’ve got to be on this one.’ Yeah, it was great. I’m very proud of him.”
Paul was feted by his mostly 20-something teammates – only Harrison Barnes and Paul are 30-anything – after the Spurs secured the victory, their oldest teammate was truly touched by their affection.
“It was really cool,” Paul said. “The guys gave me a memorable gift, not only a win but a ball and a big picture with all the teams that I did play with. But more so all the guys that I’ve assisted in my career, and I definitely wasn’t expecting that.”
Acting Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, himself a former point guard who once lobbed passes to the Lopez twins, Brook and Robin, when they all played for the Stanford Cardinal, presented the large plaque to an emotional Paul in the locker room, after which his teammates doused him from water bottles.
Johnson cited the circumstances of Paul’s career that make his historic accomplishments even more impressive.
“The thing that sticks out to me is (that he) passed Magic Johnson, Jason Kidd, one of the records that I think a lot of people say may not get passed or (gotten) to. And you see this guy, over 12,000 assists. The teams he’s done it on, the way he’s done it, the way his game’s evolved, his presence on the court, what he does dictating and manipulating games, making people better … it’s one of a kind.
“We are witnessing greatness and a lot of us have competed against him. We’ve all watched him. And to be able to experience it firsthand is a privilege. And he’s still doing that at a high, high level and we are grateful for that. He deserves all the praise and attention that comes with that because it’s a hell of an honor.”
By the time Sunday’s game concluded, Paul had added seven more dimes to the milestone third assist. He reminisced about sharing point guard duties with Kidd on the gold medal 2008 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team and the challenge of numerous battles against a great passer who enjoyed a considerable size advantage, 6 foot 4 to his 6-0.
“Yeah, he got his hundredth triple-double against me in Dallas, the last game of the (2007-08) season,” Paul said. “I mean, NBA was a little different then. It wasn’t like 3-and-D guys, I had to guard these 6-7 point guards, you know what I mean? So, J. Kidd, along with a lot of greats taught me a lot.’
Paul, 39, now is deeply engaged in teaching his young Spurs teammates what it takes to be a winner in the NBA, mostly by example.
Wembanyama has felt the Paul effect and gladly accepts its imperatives.
“It’s the competitiveness,” Wembanyama said. “Something you can guess from TV or from knowing him as a fan, but as a teammate, it’s just incredible how he doesn’t just do things halfway. He’s never just on the court to be on the court. He’s trying to win, trying to find solutions, and I think it’s a unique thing and it’s a trait that you find in all those greats that stick around for years and years.
“They’re not here just to be here. He’s really purposeful.”
Even Paul’s off-the-court habits are rubbing off on his latest set of tutees.
“The way he takes care of his body and approaches the game every day, it’s going to help a lot of us, a lot of our young guys to mold them into the players that they need to be,” said Spurs forward Julian Champagnie, 23, and San Antonio’s leader in 3-point makes this season. “Just watching him take care of his body, his preparation day in and day out, how he knows everybody on the (scouting report). He’s a pro’s pro. and we appreciate him for everything.”
Opposing coaches understand what Paul already has done for a Spurs team that won only 22 games in its previous two seasons. His leadership has his teammates believing in themselves.
“What sticks out to me the most is just obviously he’s a great playmaker, a great player, but just his fricking leadership,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “When I think of Chris Paul, I just think ‘ultimate leader, ultimate competitor.’
“You talk about one of the all-time greats and maximizing every single ounce that he could from his body and his brain. Un-freaking-believable to me. When you say Chris Paul, I just think ultimate competitor at the highest freaking level.”
Now officially No. 2 on the all-time assists list, Paul knows he will never play long enough to catch leader John Stockton.
The Jazz great’s 15,806 career assists stand as the most unreachable of all NBA records. Even Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game seems more vulnerable to the increased pace of play and emphasis on 3-point shooting that has become the offensive norm than does the stupendous singularity of Stockton’s average of 10.5 assists over his 1,504 regular-season games played.
That Stockton missed only 22 games in his 19 seasons — he failed to play the maximum number only twice — accounts for the giant gap between his total and those of Paul, Kidd, Magic Johnson and every other top passer.
At Paul’s career average of 9.3 assists per game, he would need to play about six more seasons to have a chance at surpassing the Utah Hall of Famer.
“Trust me, I know, I know,” Paul said of Stockton’s relatively indestructible nature. “More power to him. That is not my ministry, not my story.
“Yeah. I wish I only missed (22) games. I’m five hand surgeries later. It has been different points in my career where I’m sure I’ve been written off, traded here, traded there, at Oklahoma, this, that, and the other. But I want to say a big thank you to my family, my support system.”
It’s the pull of that support system that might make this season with the Spurs Paul’s farewell tour of the NBA, though he is completely non-committal about such a prospect. As he prepared to exit the podium after his postgame news conference Sunday night, he was asked how much longer he wanted to continue his NBA career.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m constantly talking about it. I love it. I love it more than anything. I just love hooping. But, I love my family too, and I know I’ve missed a lot. So, right now I’m going to just keep hooping and figure it out as I go.”
As he goes through this season there’s another milestone on Paul’s horizon. With 37 regular-season steals, he will — wait for it — jump Kidd into second place on the NBA’s all-time career list. After getting two more on Sunday, he has 2,648, 36 fewer than Kidd’s 2,684.
Atop that list, of course: Stockton with 3,265.
(Photo of Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul: Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)
