Today, it was announced that after playing 21 great seasons, Chris Paul was retiring.

Paul announced before this season that it would be his last, but few could have imagined it ending this way: being sent home by the Clippers before being traded to the Raptors at the deadline and later bought out of his contract.

Although the most recent memory is bitter, it cannot spoil a career in which Paul made 11 All-NBA teams, nine All-Defensive teams and 12 All-Star Games, among other accolades that will likely put him in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

However basketball and NBA fans remember Paul’s career, it will always mean something different to those in Oklahoma City and Thunder fans.

I remember when Hurricane Katrina forced the New Orleans Hornets to move to Oklahoma City for the 2005-06 NBA season, which happened to coincide with Paul's rookie year.

Paul and the Hornets’ success no doubt laid the foundation as a proof of concept that an NBA team could survive and would get more than the proper amount of support in a small market like Oklahoma City, which later led Clay Bennett to move the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City in 2008 and birthed the Thunder as we know them today.

But that wouldn't be the only time Paul and Oklahoma City’s paths crossed: On July 11, 2019, the Thunder traded Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets for Paul and draft compensation.

This acquisition followed the league-changing Paul George trade that brought a young Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to Oklahoma City along with a treasure trove of draft assets.

Like his rookie season, Paul spent one year in Oklahoma City with the Thunder, and his contributions are still felt today.

Paul served as an important mentor to a second-year Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and rookie Luguentz Dort. In a season when most experts expected the Thunder to tank, Paul would not allow that to happen.

Paul led a team that still ranks among my favorite Thunder squads, featuring the three-guard lineup of Paul, Gilgeous-Alexander and Dennis Schröder.

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and Oklahoma City losing in the first round of the playoffs in a seven-game series to the Rockets in the bubble, the season ended under odd circumstances but left everyone grateful to experience it together—the team, Paul and Thunder fans.

After that season, Paul was traded to the Suns, but his presence was still felt on the Thunder as Gilgeous-Alexander and Dort carried on lessons learned from him. Those lessons helped set the foundation and standards that led, a few years later, to the Thunder raising the Larry O’Brien Trophy in the franchise’s first NBA championship.

I can say with confidence that none of the Thunder’s accomplishments as a franchise would have been possible without Paul playing in the Ford Center back in 2005.

He may have played only two seasons here, but Paul is undoubtedly an Oklahoma City pro basketball legend.

Who knows if the Thunder will retire his jersey, his Hornets jersey or honor him with a statue, but Paul will always have a hoops home in Oklahoma City.

Thanks for the memories to an all-time great and one of the most important figures in Oklahoma City pro basketball.