Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George never intended on leaving Los Angeles this summer. However, the NBA is a business, and the Clippers wouldn’t show him the money.
George opened up on Monday about his message to the fanbase, via Podcast P, presented by Wave Sports and Entertainment.
“I guess to the fans, I just want to say, man, I appreciate the fans here while I was in LA they held me down” George said. “They held the team down. One of the best fan bases. It says a lot when you have such a historic team like the Lakers who have won multiple titles and you still a Clippers fan. You know what I mean? It says a lot about the fandom behind being a Clipper fan and so ever indebted with just the love, the support with genuineness around me. It was fun. Lacing it up in front of them. I’m sad that I won’t go into the new arena with pure, elite Clippers fans packing that arena out. It’s bittersweet. I don’t know what reception I get coming back, but I do want to say I appreciate playing in front of the home crowd and embracing that playing for the city.”
George left just as the franchise moved away from Crypto.com arena to the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. This will be the first time the Clippers will have their own arena to call home.
Although George dealt with constant injuries in his five-year tenure with Los Angeles, he still made his mark, making All-NBA third team in 2019-20 and three All-Star appearances. The southern California native averaged 23 points per game on 45.5% shooting with six rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.5 steals as a Clipper.
What will be George’s legacy with the squad?
George is one of the most important players in Clippers history
The 34-year-old gave his thoughts about the most memorable moment of his time with the team.
“I mean, I just think that run we had when we went to the Western Conference Finals was, obviously that’s the furthest a team went in Clippers history,” George said. “I’m not one to dwell on sh*t that don’t mean nothing. We didn’t win so it doesn’t mean much. But that moment was the most, I felt like a Clipper my whole time. You know what I mean? It was life there. It was energy in it, you know what I mean? It was like, I don’t know, it was just like we felt we could beat anybody. That group felt like we was the best team regardless. We lost when Kawhi [Leonard] went down, that hurt us. But if he was healthy, we winning that year. You know what I mean?”
George, of course, was referencing the 2020-21 season, when Los Angeles made the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history. After playing Robin to Leonard’s Batman, the nine-time All-Star was forced to be the hero after “The Klaw” partially tore his right ACL against Utah Jazz in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals. George responded with a 31-point outing, tying the series at 2-2.
The six-time All-NBA honoree then proved it wasn’t a fluke, turning in a 37-point, 16-rebound, five-assist performance in Game 5, leading Los Angeles to another victory and proving he deserved the “Playoff P” nickname. George even gave the shorthanded squad a fighting chance against the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference Finals, putting up a 41-13-6 stat line in Game 5. However, the Clippers ran out of gas, falling 4-2 in the series.
Despite George’s contributions to the team, though, it couldn’t give him the amount of cash he wanted, via Yahoo Sports’ Vincent Goodwill.
“George wanted more than the Clippers could afford to offer — it probably would’ve looked bad if he got a longer deal than Leonard as well as max numbers with Leonard taking less than he could’ve,” Goodwill said.
While Leonard has gotten hurt every season since 2021, he’s still considered a better player than George when healthy, which is why the team prioritized him over George. The 76ers, meanwhile, had the cap space to offer “PG-13” the four-year max deal he wanted.
Regardless, though, George took the Clippers to new heights, providing them with the type of star power it hadn’t had since the “Lob City” days with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.
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