During the NBA Cup game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, seasoned point guard Chris Paul achieved a significant career milestone. Entering the game with 11,997 career assists, Paul required only three more assists to join an exclusive NBA statistical club.
The former Wake Forest Demon Deacons star finally joined that club in the first quarter of the Lakers game with a sweet assist to big man Victor Wembanyama from a pick-and-roll action.
With that dime, Paul became just the third player in the history of the NBA to amass at least 12,000 assists.
Even though he’s already in the twilight of his pro career, Paul continues to do what he does best on the court at a high level.
The Spurs started Friday ranked 10th in the NBA with 27.4 assists per game with Paul leading San Antonio in both dimes per contest (8.6) and assist rate (41.0%) among players on the team with regular minutes. Paul, who signed a one-year deal worth $10.46 million with the Spurs last July, has a long way to go if he is to catch Jason Kidd and John Stockton on the NBA’s all-time assists list. Stockton is the all-time leader with a seemingly unbreakable record of 15,806 assists while Kidd is second with 12,091 dimes.
