Since the Thunder were eliminated by the Houston Rockets and Chris Paul recorded what many believed was a farewell video to Thunder fans, there’s been endless speculation as to whether he has played his final game in a Thunder uniform.
Paul has had nothing but kind words for both Billy Donovan and Sam Presti, and he has let it be known that he thoroughly enjoyed his time in Oklahoma City, but he’s stopped short of unequivocally stating that his desire is to remain with the franchise.
Aside from that, Leon Rose — Paul’s former agent — is now running basketball operations for the New York Knicks. Desperate to reverse the fortunes of the storied franchise, there has also been endless speculation with respect to the Knicks’ willingness to attempt to assemble a compelling trade package that would land them Paul.
On Friday, Sports Illustrated published a piece in which it quoted Paul as sharing his thoughts about his future with its Robin Lundberg.
“I have no clue,” Paul said when asked about his future. “I enjoyed this past season and we’ll see what happens.”
The admission from Paul came after he told Lundberg, in effect, that he thinks that any team he finds itself on is playing for something. It’s hard to argue with his logic, too. Paul’s teams has qualified for the playoffs in all but two seasons of his career — his rookie year and his third year when he played just 45 games.
For that reason, it’s been fairly easy for Paul to publicly maintain a carefree attitude bout his future destination. He’s due about $85 million for the next two seasons and doesn’t have any plans of opting out. There’s also a chance that Presti will do right by Paul and trade him to a situation in which he feels Paul will be happy.
Paul said to Sports Illustrated:
“I’m 35 and I just finished my 15th year. Any team that I’m on I think that we’re competing for a championship,” Paul said…
“And that’s the way we felt this year with OKC. We had a very, very special team and that’s why I think I was hurt and just so mad when we lost.”
Although Oklahoma City’s season ended a bit earlier than Paul would have liked, Sam Presti finished second in Executive of the Year voting while Paul earned a spot on the All-NBA Second Team.
Even if Paul feels differently, objectively speaking, the Thunder overachieved.
Now, like everyone else, Paul is waiting patiently to see if he’ll be able to continue what he started.