In Year 20, the Spurs' Chris Paul starts all 82 games. And he made some history in the process

In Year 20, Chris Paul started all 82. And he made some NBA history in the process.

Paul was in the San Antonio Spurs' starting lineup for their season finale on Sunday, making him the first player to ever make 82 starts this deep into a career. The previous mark on that front was held by Utah's John Stockton, who started all 82 games in his 19th and final season.

Paul — who turns 40 in less than a month — is one of three players to have a season with 82 appearances at his age. Stockton did it in the seasons where he turned 39 and 40, and Michael Jordan turned 39 in his final season while playing in all 82 games and starting 67 of them.

“It’s crazy," Paul said. "I was talking to my wife about this. When you’re sort of in it, you’re not really thinking about it. It’s like, ‘OK, it’s Game 30. OK, it’s Game 40something. It’s game such and such.’”

It became Game 82. And Paul never missed a beat.

He's one of six players who made 82 starts in this NBA regular season, which was ending Sunday. The others: New York's Mikal Bridges, Minnesota's Jaden McDaniels, Houston's Jalen Green, Cleveland's Jarrett Allen and Paul's San Antonio teammate Harrison Barnes.

With Paul, Barnes and Julian Champagnie, the Spurs became the first team since the 2017-18 Minnesota Timberwolves with at least three players to appear in 82 games.

For Barnes, who is in his first year with the Spurs, Sunday's game was his 304th in a row. He and Paul are the first Spurs to play all 82 games since Bryn Forbes and Patty Mills in 2018-19 — and the first Spurs to start all 82 games since Bruce Bowen in 2006-07.

“Year 20, this is only the second time in my career playing 82 games," Paul said. “And also playing as long as I have, I think I know how hard it is. That's why I have so much respect for Harrison, who is doing this for the third year in a row. And Mikal, who was my teammate, he never misses a game.”

Also playing in Game 82s on Sunday: Golden State's Buddy Hield, Detroit's Malik Beasley, Washington's Bub Carrington and Minnesota's Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

Bridges was playing in his 556th consecutive regular-season game Sunday — out of a possible 556. He hasn't missed any game since his junior year of high school, including 116 at Villanova and 39 NBA playoff games. Add that up, and he's played in 711 consecutive games since entering college.

The Knicks held out four starters for a meaningless game standings-wise Sunday. Bridges was the exception.

“I think he's earned that right,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It's a tribute to him. I think he's worked hard to put himself in that position. I've said this before: He should be commended for it.”

Bridges played the first six seconds to extend the streak Sunday, took a foul, got subbed out by Landry Shamet and went to the bench. (He did something similar in the final game of the 2023-24 season, playing four seconds for Brooklyn against Philadelphia on the last day.)

“I mean, they just asked to see what I want to do,” Bridges said. “It’s really for the young guys, because I could play a quarter or play a half, but that’s taking away from young guys like (Pacome Dadiet and Kevin McCullar Jr.), guys that played well today, too, but just for their minutes.”

It happened elsewhere as well: Allen played 41 seconds for Cleveland on Sunday to get to 82 starts, then was subbed out.

Sacramento’s Jonas Valanciunas appeared in 81 games this season, not 82, with a big caveat — he was inactive for two teams on the same day, which is the only reason why he didn’t get to 82 this season. Valanciunas was traded by Washington to the Kings on Feb. 5; he appeared that night as inactive for both of those teams on the official NBA boxscores because the trade was pending.

He played on Feb. 6 for the Kings and hasn’t missed a game since.

Paul was the 11th player in NBA history to make it to 20 seasons in the league. LeBron James, if he plays next year as would be expected, will then become the first to make it to 23 seasons in the league, breaking the tie with 22-year player Vince Carter.

Bridges, the NBA's reigning iron man, doesn't see himself pulling off what his former teammate in Phoenix did this season.

“That’s why CP is one of the greatest,” he said. “But I don’t think I’ll make it that long, however many years he’s played.”

Robert Parish, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Willis all played 21 NBA seasons, which Paul will get to next year if he — again, as expected — returns. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Jamal Crawford and Udonis Haslem all played 20 seasons, a club that Kyle Lowry will join next season.

“I know there’s stuff still in the tank," Paul said. “You know, I think for me, the summer will just be a really good time to just evaluate everything, the opportunities. But the love for the game is still there.”

AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in New York contributed to this report.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green, right, shoots as Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels (3) shoots against Memphis Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane (22) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)

Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (31) shoots over Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner (33) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges (25) checks out and returns to the bench during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes gestures after hitting a 3-point shot against the Denver Nuggets in the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

President Donald Trump is testing his midterm message on the economy in a toss-up congressional district in New York, even as voters largely disapprove of his stewardship. The event's promoted focus is the tax law Trump signed last year, which quadrupled the federal deduction for state and local taxes, a critical change for high-tax states like New York.

Meanwhile, Republicans are struggling to find the votes to keep supporting Trump's war with Iran. In Havana, a huge crowd of Cubans is taunting Trump while protesting the U.S. indictment former President Raúl Castro amid Trump's pressure campaign. And in Europe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is facing NATO allies confused by contradictory Trump administration statements.

The Latest:

When Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed off on a nearly $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate Trump’s allies for alleged political prosecution, he may have pleased his boss. But the eyebrow-raising move — has agitated the same Republican lawmakers he would need to secure the permanent job.

Blanche insists he’s not auditioning for the job of attorney general. But a succession of splashy steps taken under his watch at the Justice Department, including an indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, have left no doubt that he’s trying to prove his loyalty to the president.

The fund in particular has put Blanche at the center of a Republican firestorm just when he aims to establish himself as the perfect person for the job for the remainder of Trump’s term. Read more

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is riding high ahead of his Republican primary runoff against Sen. John Cornyn, now that he has the president’s backing.

“I don’t know if y’all noticed this, but Donald Trump endorsed me,” Paxton told a small rally in a town outside Austin, inciting whoops and applause.

The senate race in Texas has drawn gobs of money and attention, including from Trump, who continues encouraging voters to boot any politician who displeases him.

Paxton has been turning his focus to state Rep. James Talarico, opening his latest event with attacks on the Democratic nominee, a sign of his confidence heading into Tuesday.

▶ Read more:

Democrats are cheering rulings by federal judges in Maine and Wisconsin that dismissed Justice Department demands for detailed voter registration information.

The DOJ has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking to force the release of voter information including dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. Thursday’s defeats follow similar rulings in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Rhode Island, In Georgia, a judge dismissed a DOJ lawsuit filed in the wrong city, prompting the Trump administration to refile elsewhere.

Bianca Shaw, state director of Common Cause Wisconsin, said the decision protects voters “from an unauthorized national database that would have been a goldmine for hackers and a tool for intimidation.”

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat and Trump opponent who is running for governor, said the ruling affirms that states run elections.

Trump has a reputation for slashing his taxes using techniques that some experts find aggressive. Now the Justice Department has told the president he doesn’t have to worry about being called out on it.

In an extraordinary decision this week, the IRS is suspending probes into his past returns to settle a lawsuit that Trump brought against the agency he ultimately runs. Trump says tax authorities targeted him politically — a claim for which he has given no proof — and that he was right to seek a remedy.

Law experts say the move is unprecedented and unfair.

“This is giving the president and his affiliates completely different set of rules than everyday taxpayers,” said Brandon DeBot, policy director at New York University’s Tax Law Center.

▶ Read more:

“Iran is trying to create a tolling system,” Rubio said. “That’s just not acceptable. It can’t happen. If that were to happen in the Straits of Hormuz, it will happen in five other places around the world.”

Iran’s official Mizan news agency reported that 35 vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy in the previous 24 hours.

Without specifying the nationalities of the vessels, Mizan quoted the Revolutionary Guard navy as saying that the oil tankers, container ships and other commercial ships transited the strait after obtaining permission and in coordination with, and under the protection of, the Revolutionary Guard navy.

Iran has demanded the right to collect the tolls as a precondition for reopening the waterway vital to world oil supplies.

The Trump administration remains ready to resume mediation efforts that have been stalled for some time, Rubio said.

With concerns high in Europe, particularly in the Baltic states, that the administration’s interest in ending the conflict is waning, Rubio told reporters that the U.S. still believes the “the war can only end with a negotiated settlement. It will not end with a military victory by one side or the other.”

Previous rounds of talks were unfortunately “not fruitful,” Rubio said, but “if we see an opportunity to pull together talks that are productive, not counterproductive, and that have the chance to be fruitful, we’re prepared to play that role.”

The secretary of state said he and other foreign ministers discussed the issue of reopening the critical waterway, and that he reiterated the need for a “Plan B” if a deal isn’t reached between Washington and Tehran.

“Someone’s going to have to do something about it, okay?” Rubio said. “They’re not just going to voluntarily reopen the straits in that scenario.”

Rubio said he received lots of “nods” from European allies when he brought it up Friday. In the same breath, Rubio confirmed what Iranian officials had been saying, that progress is being made in the negotiations.

“I wouldn’t exaggerate it and I wouldn’t diminish it,” he said. “But there’s more work to be done.”

Rubio says America’s NATO allies understand that eventually there will be a reduction in the U.S. troop presence in Europe as the Trump administration evaluates its force posture globally.

“I think there’s a broad recognition that there are going to be eventually less U.S. troops in Europe than there has historically been for a variety of reasons,” Rubio told reporters.

NATO allies have been confused by contradictory statements coming from Trump and his top aides, including an announcement last week that troop levels would be reduced in Poland that Trump appeared to reverse on Thursday. A previously announced troop reduction in Germany appears to be going ahead but Rubio noted that the Germans “didn’t freak out about it” because it brought the numbers back to where they were three years ago.

The U.S. secretary of state has met with his NATO foreign minister counterparts in Sweden and reiterated U.S. demands for Europe and Canada to increase their defense spending and military industrial capabilities.

In meetings with his colleagues in Helsingborg on Friday, Rubio said the U.S. remains committed to NATO but said the force posture of American troops in Europe is contingent on what allies contribute. The alliance has been jolted by Trump’s abrupt decisions on troop deployments.

Trump has expressed strong dissatisfaction with some allies and their reluctance or refusal to assist in the war with Iran. Rubio said the president’s views and “frankly, disappointment at some of our NATO Allies and their response to our operations in the Middle East, they are well documented” and need to be addressed by NATO leaders at their summit in Turkey in July.

While the president’s handpicked candidates are winning GOP primaries, many are untested heading into general elections this fall. Trump’s own approval rating sits at a low point, and he’s spending his political capital, alienating would-be allies and threatening to detail GOP priorities.

Trump’s announcement of nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for people he believes were wrongly prosecuted blindsided senators already fuming over his push for $1 billion to provide security for his new White House ballroom. The audacity of the arrangement proved too toxic for the Senate to bear.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called it “stupid on stilts” and a “payout for punks.”

“So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong — Take your pick,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former majority leader.

Voting on a roughly $70 billion budget package that would fuel Trump’s immigration and deportation operations for the remainder of his presidential term, into 2029, was postponed until Congress resumes next month. That blows Trump’s June 1 deadline to have it on his desk.

Trump shrugged when asked during an Oval Office event if he was losing control of the Senate.

“I really don’t know,” the president said.

And it wasn’t just the Senate. For the first time this year, enough Republican House members broke ranks to signal support for a war powers resolution from Democrats that’s designed to halt Trump’s military action in Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson postponed the voting to avoid confronting the president.

Trump’s political revenge tour met its potential match this week as angry Republican senators, pushed to a breaking point by his seemingly insatiable and outlandish demands — particularly a $1.776 billion fund for Jan. 6 rioters and others he believes were wrongly prosecuted — did the unthinkable.

They simply refused, closed up shop, and went home.

The moment was as rare as it was daring, a sudden flex from the Congress that has become a shell of its former self as a coequal branch, the Republican majority almost always more willing to accommodate the Republican president than to confront him.

▶ Read more:

Rubio says America’s NATO allies understand that eventually there will be a reduction in the U.S. troop presence in Europe as the Trump administration evaluates its force posture globally.

“I think there’s a broad recognition that there are going to be eventually less U.S. troops in Europe than there has historically been for a variety of reasons,” Rubio told reporters.

NATO allies have been confused by contradictory statements coming from Trump and his top aides, including an announcement last week that troop levels would be reduced in Poland that Trump appeared to reverse on Thursday. A previously announced troop reduction in Germany appears to be going ahead but Rubio noted that the Germans “didn’t freak out about it” because it brought the numbers back to where they were three years ago.

The U.S. secretary of state has met with his NATO foreign minister counterparts in Sweden and reiterated U.S. demands for Europe and Canada to increase their defense spending and military industrial capabilities.

In meetings with his colleagues in Helsingborg on Friday, Rubio said the U.S. remains committed to NATO but said the force posture of American troops in Europe is contingent on what allies contribute. The alliance has been jolted by Trump’s abrupt decisions on troop deployments.

Trump has expressed strong dissatisfaction with some allies and their reluctance or refusal to assist in the war with Iran. Rubio said the president’s views and “frankly, disappointment at some of our NATO Allies and their response to our operations in the Middle East, they are well documented” and need to be addressed by NATO leaders at their summit in Turkey in July.

“Who do they think they are to judge Raúl?” Gerardo Hernández asked as the crowd cheered. He’s one of five Cubans accused of being a spy who was imprisoned and later released by the U.S. in 2014.

“For the United States, the law is a tailor-made suit,” he said before punching the air with this fist, to a shout of “Viva Raúl!”

The crowd responded to his call: “Homeland or death, we will vanquish!”

Thousands of people have crowded along Havana’s famed seawall to decry the U.S. indictment. Attendees include daughter, Mariela Castro, and his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro. Salsa songs with biting anti-Trump lyrics are booming across the old city.

The Castro indictment has many thinking the Trump administration is following a playbook it used to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a military operation in January. Maduro is now imprisoned in the U.S. on federal drug trafficking charges and has pleaded not guilty.

The U.S. military touted the arrival of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier group for maritime exercises in the Caribbean Sea as the charges against Castro were announced. But professor William LeoGrande, a Latin America specialist at American University, warned against assumptions that a Maduro-like extraction would succeed in Cuba.

“The United States certainly has the military capability to seize Raúl Castro, just as they seized Maduro, although it would probably be more costly,” LeoGrande said. But Castro has been retired for almost a decade. “He still has influence and the leadership seeks his opinion on major decisions, but he is not running the government on a day-to-day basis. If the US were to abduct him, it would not change the operations of government, unlike what happened in Venezuela.”

A huge crowd of Cubans rallied Friday outside the U.S. Embassy in Havana to honor former President Raúl Castro and to protest the Trump administration’s criminal indictment.

“The Cuban people reaffirm that neither threats, nor blockade, nor energy embargo, nor false accusations will be able to break the will of an entire people in defense of their Revolution,” read a statement published by state media.

Raúl Castro has rarely appeared in public since stepping down and handing over to President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who was joined by military leaders at the rally.

Castro was last seen surrounded by tens of thousands of people at a state-organized rally on May 1.

The Trump administration has approved a modest $108 million arms sale to Ukraine that will help the country maintain and sustain its midrange air defense missile system.

The State Department announced the sale of ground-to-air Hawk missile components, spare parts and logistic support late Thursday. The administration has notably reduced military support for Ukraine over the past 18 months as it seeks to mediate an agreement with Russia to end the conflict.

The sale “will improve Ukraine’s capability to meet current and future threats by further equipping it to conduct self-defense and regional security missions with a more robust integrated air defense capability,” the department said in a statement.

Republicans struggled Thursday to find the votes to dismiss legislation that would compel President Donald Trump to withdraw from the war with Iran, delaying planned votes on the matter into June.

The House had scheduled a vote on a war powers resolution, brought by Democrats, that would rein in Trump’s military campaign. But as it became clear that Republicans would not have the numbers to defeat the bill, GOP leaders declined to hold a vote on it. It was the latest sign of the slipping support in Congress for a war that Trump launched more than two months ago without congressional approval.

Republicans in the Senate are also working to ensure they have the votes to dismiss another war powers resolution that advanced to a final vote earlier this week, when four GOP senators supported the resolution and three others were absent from the vote.

The actions by congressional leaders showed Republicans are struggling to maintain political backing for Trump’s handling of the war.

▶ Read more

NATO allies and defense officials expressed bewilderment at Trump’s decision to send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland.

“It is confusing indeed, and not always easy to navigate,” Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told reporters at a meeting she was hosting of her NATO counterparts, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

U.S. defense officials were also confused. “We just spent the better part of two weeks reacting to the first announcement. We don’t know what this means either,” said one of two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.

NATO allies have been blindsided, despite a U.S. pledge to coordinate troop deployments. “We’re going to stay well-synchronized with our allies moving forward,” NATO’s top military officer, U.S. Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, promised on Wednesday.

▶ Read more

Trump on Thursday said the U.S. will send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, stirring confusion following weeks of changing statements from Trump and his administration about reducing — not increasing — the American military footprint in Europe.

The Trump administration has said it was reducing levels in Europe by about 5,000 troops, and U.S. officials confirmed about 4,000 service members were no longer deploying to Poland. Trump’s social media announcement raises more uncertainty for European allies that have been blindsided by the changes, as the administration has complained about NATO members not shouldering enough of the burden of their own defense and failing to do more to support the Iran war.

Trump and the Pentagon have said in recent weeks that they were drawing down at least 5,000 troops in Germany after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized what he called a lack of strategy in the war.

▶ Read more

Trump is heading to a toss-up congressional district in New York on Friday to test his midterm message on the economy, even as voters largely disapprove of his stewardship of it.

Trump will travel to the Hudson Valley area to appear with Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who is up for reelection in what will be one of the most closely watched House races this November. The focus of the event is to promote the tax law Trump signed last year, particularly the quadrupling of the deduction for state and local taxes, which is critical in a high-tax state like New York.

The White House has been looking for more opportunities to highlight Trump’s economic accomplishments as his approval rating on the economy has slumped. About one-third of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling the economy, according to a new AP-NORC poll, down slightly from 40% at the start of Trump’s second term.

▶ Read more

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, leaves after speaking to reporters outside the White House, Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Work continues on the construction of the ballroom at the White House, Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Washington, where the East Wing once stood, as work also begins for the upcoming UFC fight on the South Lawn. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One, Friday, May 15, 2026, as he returns from a trip to Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)