Chris Paul surpassed Gary Payton on the NBA’s all-time career assists list Monday night, and the Houston Rockets star received a shout out from the legendary point guard for doing so.
Paul, now eighth in career assists with 8,972, passed up Payton (8,966) during an 11-dime outing in Monday’s 120-104 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
Payton, in a video posted by Yahoo Sports, classily congratulated his point guard counterpart for the achievement.
“It’s all good man, congratulations,” Payton said. “Fella, I like that. Sorry to me… keep going up, man. Go up the hill. All records are meant to be broke. It’s good for him. I’m glad he’s playing the way he is. If he wasn’t as hurt as much, he would be more up here.”
Next up on the all-time career assists list is the Isiah Thomas (9,061). Paul needs to register 89 more assists to pass up the Detroit Pistons icon. That said, Paul admitted after Monday’s game that there’s virtually no chance that Utah Jazz legend John Stockton’s astounding 15,806 assists will ever be topped as No. 1.
“I don’t like saying never, but ain’t nobody catching that,” Paul said. “I don’t know who did the statistics in Utah.”
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