Paul George has shared his thoughts on his departure from the Clippers after signing with the 76ers, revealing that he never really intended to leave Los Angeles.
However, negotiations took a negative turn in October due to what George described as a “disrespectful” offer from the Clippers.
“Just to put it out there, like, I never wanted to leave LA,” George said on Podcast P with Paul George. “Initially I was not trying to leave LA. LA is home, this is where I wanted to finish at. I wanted to work as hard as possible to win one in LA. That was the goal, to be here and be committed to LA.
“As it played out though, like the first initial deal was, I thought, kind of disrespectful. Again, in all of this, no hard feelings, no love lost. …It’s a business.
“So the first initial deal was like two years, 60 [million]. So I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa. … That’s crazy. So I’m like, nah. I’m not signing that.”
At that point, the team had the opportunity to extend George and Leonard up to four years at $221 million.
George’s teammate, Kawhi Leonard, agreed to a $150 million extension in early January, stating that he took less money to allow the team to keep other All-Star players like PG-13 and James Harden.
George had hoped for a similar extension but was only offered incremental increases beyond the initial offer, amounting to around 44-45 million per year.
“Then I hear wind of what they’re going to give Kawhi so I’m like, ‘Just give me what Kawhi got,’” George said. “‘Y’all view us the same. We came here together, we want to finish this s— together.’ I’ll take what Kawhi got, no problem, I was cool with that and we were still taking less. Kawhi took less, so if Kawhi takes less, 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.”
