Houston Rockets point guard Chris Paul reached a major milestone on Monday night by moving into eighth place on the NBA’s all-time assists list. Despite his current standing, he acknowledged that the record set by Utah Jazz point guard John Stockton will never be touched.
Paul moved ahead of Seattle Supersonics point guard Gary Payton with 11 assists against the Dallas Mavericks According to Ben Golliver of the Washington Post, he knows Stockton’s mark is a bit out of reach:
“I don’t like saying never, but ain’t nobody catching that. I don’t know who did the statistics in Utah.”
There is certainly plenty of truth to Paul’s comments. He is well-regarded as the premier point guard of his generation and has now registered 8,972 assists in the final phase of his career. Unfortunately, he is only past the halfway mark at this point in comparison to Stockton’s record for 15,806 assists.
Paul now only need 89 assists to pass Detroit Pistons point guard Isaiah Thomas’ mark of 9,061. It is safe to say that he will be able to slide in the seventh spot at some point in the regular season barring injury. There is a very strong possibility that the veteran cracks the top five when all is said and done.
Although Paul will never be able to break Stockton’s record, he can still compensate by doing what the Jazz legend was never able to do, which is overcome a dynasty. The Rockets were on the verge of potentially pulling off an upset over the Golden State Warriors in last year’s Western Conference Finals. Although Houston has taken a step back since then, they are still one of the few teams capable of matching the Warriors’ firepower.
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