Vegan Chris Paul Retires as a 12-Time All-Star and the NBA's Second-Highest Assist Maker

Chris Paul has retired. The 'Point God', a 12-time All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medallist, announced the end of his 21-season NBA career on Friday, on the first day of All-Star weekend in Inglewood, California, AP reports.

Paul retires second in NBA history in both assists, with 12,552, and steals, with 2,728. He was a four-time All-NBA first team pick and the first player to reach 20,000 points and 10,000 assists. He is one of only seven players whose careers have spanned at least 21 seasons.

His final season was short. He returned to the Los Angeles Clippers last summer, but his last game came on December 1 and he was traded to Toronto earlier this month. Paul wrote:

While this chapter of being an 'NBA player' is done, the game of basketball will forever be engrained in the DNA of my life, spanning three decades. It's crazy even saying that!!

Paul went vegan in 2019 and played some of his best basketball in his mid-thirties on plants, leading Phoenix to the Finals in 2021. He invested in vegan brands including Beyond Meat, Just Egg and Wicked Kitchen, and launched his own vegan snack line, Good Eat'n, VegNews reports. When he teamed up with goPuff to stock plant-based brands, many of them Black-owned, he told VegNews:

I'm passionate about the benefits of a plant-based diet and look forward to working with goPuff to build out their plant-based offerings to include a selection of my favorite brands, many of which are Black- and Brown-owned, onto their platform today.

Paul's plant-based story started when he worked on The Game Changers. Since then he led Phoenix to his first NBA Finals, passed Jason Kidd for second on the all-time assists list and started all 82 games in his 20th season. And it was Kyrie Irving who helped put vegan basketball in the spotlight.

Twenty-one seasons, and the last seven on plants. Thanks, Point God.