Spurs point guard Chris Paul is on a one-year contract, but he doesn’t necessarily plan on calling it a career when that deal expires. Speaking to Hall of Famer and former Spurs point guard Tony Parker an interview posted by the team (YouTube link), Paul suggested he still has “maybe a year or two” left in the tank.
“I’m still trying to feel it out,” Paul said. “I think the hardest part is—like, I love this, like practice today, I love hooping, I love all of that. The hardest part is when I get home and I’ve gotta watch my kids’ games on my iPad or whatnot, so that’s the tug of war right now.”
As Paul explained to Parker, his wife and kids are still living in Los Angeles, so he doesn’t want to spend too many more years away from them. Asked by Parker why he decided to join a rebuilding team like San Antonio, CP3 explained that if he was going to continue his career, playing time was a more important consideration for him than the opportunity to contend for a championship.
“Last year was probably one of the toughest years for me,” Paul said of a season with the Warriors in which he averaged a career-low 26.4 minutes per game. “More than anything, I just love to hoop. I wanna play. … If I’m gonna sacrifice my family and be away from them, then I at least need to be playing. Nobody’s guaranteed to win. There’s only one team that’s going to win. I think for me, I looked (at San Antonio) and I was like, ‘Man, I can go play. I can go hoop.'”
Here’s more on the Spurs:
- While Paul has been adamant over the years that he has no desire to become an NBA coach after he retires, he softened that stance a little during his conversation with Parker. “I always said I wasn’t going to coach,” Paul said,“but I don’t know, I’m open to a whole bunch of things now.” In this year’s NBA general manager poll conducted by John Schuhmann, Paul received the most votes when GMs were asked which active player would make the best head coach.
- In an in-depth feature for The San Antonio Express-News, Jeff McDonald takes a look at how Spurs assistant Mitch Johnson has become more than just Gregg Popovich‘s stand-in, establishing himself as a strong candidate to become a permanent head coach in San Antonio or elsewhere in the coming years.
- The Spurs, who will face the Trail Blazers in Portland on Friday, are currently in the midst of four consecutive days off. The rare in-season break has been a boon for Victor Wembanyama, who said on Wednesday that it has been “really beneficial” to rest the sore lower back that forced him to miss two games last week, as Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News relays. This is the first time Wembanyama has experienced back pain, he told reporters. “It’s not like a big deal, but sometimes it stops me from doing certain things,” the reigning Rookie of the Year said.
- While there’s no indication the Spurs will be in any rush to make an in-season trade, three players who signed new contracts over the offseason will become eligible to be dealt as of this Sunday: Paul, Charles Bassey, and Sandro Mamukelashvili.