Paul George wished the Clippers to place some respect on his identify — and of their contract extension to him.
Throughout his “Podcast P with Paul George” present launched Monday, the newly minted member of the 76ers opened up about what had occurred between himself and the Clippers through the negotiation course of for an extension earlier than signing with the 76ers over the weekend.
George known as the Clippers’ first provide that got here in October of final yr — $60 million over two years — “form of disrespectful.”
“I’m like nah, I’m not signing that,” George defined, after saying that there have been no exhausting emotions towards the Clippers.
He went on to clarify that the gives stored inching up and finally reached the $40-45 million vary per yr, which George nonetheless felt was too low.
That’s when he began to listen to concerning the three-year, $153 million extension Kawhi Leonard was given by the Clippers, and George felt that he would simply take the identical deal since he mentioned that the workforce “view us the identical.”
“We got here right here collectively. We wanna end this s–t collectively. I’ll take what Kawhi obtained, no drawback,” George mentioned. “I used to be cool with that and we have been nonetheless taking much less. … I used to be like if [Leonard] was going to take much less, I’m not going to say I need greater than [Leonard].”
George mentioned that the dialog had occurred earlier than the NBA All-Star break, and he determined to desk it to maintain the talks from impacting his temper within the locker room.
The Clippers returned to George on the finish of the season to proceed talks, they usually introduced him a three-year, $150 provide, which George mentioned he was keen to take however wished a no-trade clause.
When Los Angeles balked at that, George mentioned, he moved to asking for the complete max provide of 4 years, $212 million.
When that was turned down, that opened the door for him to hearken to different groups.
“Via the negotiations, they weren’t budging,” George mentioned. “They weren’t budging. I wasn’t going to budge. I believed I performed effectively sufficient for them to be like ‘he’s part of our future.’ I believed I did that, I believed I earned that. … At that time, it didn’t even really feel proper to come back again with that sort of vitality and be comfy enjoying again in LA.”
George finally signed a four-year, $212 million max take care of the 76ers after placing up 22.6 factors per sport and capturing 47.1 p.c from the sector for the Clippers in 2023-24.
