After being selected by the Warriors with their first pick in the 1950 NBA draft, Paul Arizin averaged 17.2 points per game in his rookie season and was named NBA Rookie of the Year — a designation not currently sanctioned by the NBA for the 1950-51 season. He became one of the greatest NBA players of the 1950s, leading the league in scoring during the 1951–52 and 1956–57 seasons and leading in field goal percentage in 1951-52. Arizin sat out the 1952–53 and 1953–54 NBA seasons due to military service in the Marines during the Korean War. Paul Arizin became famous for his line-drive jump shots, and teamed with center Neil Johnston to form the best offensive one-two punch in the NBA at the time, leading the Warriors to the 1956 NBA title. He also played with scoring star Joe Fulks early in his career, and with Philadelphia legends Tom Gola and Wilt Chamberlain toward the end of his career in the early 1960s. Arizin chose to retire from the NBA rather than move with the Warriors to San Francisco. At the time of his retirement, no player had retired from the game with a higher scoring average (21.9 points per game) in his final season. This record would stand until Bob Pettit’s retirement in 1965 following a season in which he averaged 22.5 PPG.

Paul Arizin played in a total of 10 NBA All-Star Games (he was the 1952 NBA All-Star Game MVP) and was named to the All-NBA First-Team in 1952, 1956, and 1957. After retiring from the NBA, Arizin played for three seasons with the Camden Bullets of the Eastern Professional Basketball League, who won the 1964 title. Averaging over 20 points per game each season, he was named the EBL MVP in 1963, was named to the EBL All-Star First Team in 1963 and 1964 and to the EBL All-Star Second Team in 1965. Arizin was named to the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, and was selected to the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996. He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. Paul Arizin died in his sleep at age 78 on December 12, 2006, in Springfield, Pennsylvania.