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 supply 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 elucidate that the affords stored inching up and ultimately 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 stated that the group “view us the identical.”
“We got here right here collectively. We wanna end this s–t collectively. I’ll take what Kawhi acquired, no drawback,” George stated. “I used to be cool with that and we had 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 stated 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, and so they introduced him a three-year, $150 supply, which George stated he was prepared to take however wished a no-trade clause.
When Los Angeles balked at that, George stated, he moved to asking for the complete max supply of 4 years, $212 million.
When that was turned down, that opened the door for him to take heed to different groups.
“By the negotiations, they weren’t budging,” George stated. “They weren’t budging. I wasn’t going to budge. I assumed I performed nicely sufficient for them to be like ‘he’s part of our future.’ I assumed I did that, I assumed I earned that. … At that time, it didn’t even really feel proper to return again with that sort of vitality and be comfy enjoying again in LA.”
George ultimately signed a four-year, $212 million max take care of the 76ers after placing up 22.6 factors per sport and capturing 47.1 % from the sphere for the Clippers in 2023-24.
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