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Paul George opens up on Clippers fallout
Paul George opens up on Clippers fallout
Nearly six months ago, Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard agreed to a three-year, $152 million extension, nearly $10 million less than the max that he could’ve received.
At the time, there was a belief that star forward Paul George would also work out an extension with Los Angeles. That was not the case, as he ultimately opted out of his player option and signed a four-year max contract with the Philadelphia 76ers last week.
George, 34, recently opened up about his time in Los Angeles and his contract negotiations with their brass on his podcast called, Podcast P with Paul George.
“Just to put it out there, I never wanted to leave L.A.,” he said. “L.A. is home. This is where I wanted to finish [my career]. I wanted to work as hard as possible to win [an NBA Title] in L.A.”
He then went in to discuss the initial negotiation–two years for $60 million–which he deemed “kinda disrespectful.” He’s not wrong, but noted that the organization inched up to “$45 million” per season.
This was like a couple months in between before we got it to 40-something. I’m still like, ‘Nah, I’m not doing that.’,” he said. “Then I hear wind of what they’re going to give [Kawhi Leonard], so I’m like, ‘Just give me what Kawhi got. Y’all view us the same. We came here together. … I’ll take what Kawhi got.’ I was cool with that.
“Kawhi took less (than the max). I was like, ‘If Kawhi took less, I’m not going to say I want more than Kawhi. It’s not about me being paid more than him. Y’all give him that, give me that.’ They didn’t want to do that.”
George said that, by the All-Star break, he wanted to play the rest of the year because he didn’t want it to continue to affect him mentally.
“It was starting to get into my mood,” he said. “I didn’t want to have that energy carry over to the team.”
George said the negotiations after the season got to $150 million over three years, though George wanted to add the no-trade clause in the contract to ensure that he was in Los Angeles. With Bradley Beal being the only NBA player with an official no-trade clause at the time, the team declined, and George pushed the offer up to $212 million over four without a no-trade clause.
“If y’all going to trade me, y’all going to trade me,” George said. “But at least now I’m not in a situation where I could have got more had I just gone to free agency than take this deal and y’all can just ship me wherever (you) want. Now I’m on this deal that I didn’t want. They didn’t want to do that.
“I wasn’t going to budge. I thought I played well enough for them to, you know, be like ‘He’s a part of our future.’ I thought I did that. I thought I earned that. Granted we didn’t win while I was there, but luck has a lot to do with that. We couldn’t remain healthy as a unit. But I thought I did enough to earn that.“
Here’s the full video:
Of course, we only got one side of the story. But it’s fascinating how these contract negotiations played out. I’m surprised that he’s not a Clipper, but this offered a lot more clarity behind closed doors.
In the end, George got his money and will now be a part of one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference alongside Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Los Angeles hasn’t had as good of a free agency, but at least they retained James Harden while snagging Derrick Jones Jr. on a team-friendly deal.
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