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"I never wanted to leave LA," George said on
the podcast. "LA is home, this is where I wanted to finish at,
and 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, the first initial deal was I thought kind of
disrespectful. In all of this, no hard feelings, no love lost
...
"It's a business. So the first initial deal was like two years,
60. So I'm like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's crazy!' I'm like,
‘Naw, I'm not signing that.'"
George said he wanted a deal similar to the reported three-year,
$152.4 million extension that Clippers gave to Kawhi Leonard in
January. The holdup there was that George wanted a no-trade
clause.
George said the best in-season offer was around $44-45 million
per year. He cut off negotiations not long after Leonard signed
his extension.
Leonard and George both joined the Clippers in the summer of
2019.
"I'll take what Kawhi got, no problem," George said. "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."
George said he informed Leonard that he was going to leave for
Philadelphia.
"I owed Kawhi that conversation," George said. "He understood
like, ‘Go get your bag.' I look at Kawhi as one of my best
friends in this league. Somebody that I (expletive) with. Our
families love each other. So it was tough to leave him just with
how much I enjoyed being out there with him. That weighed a lot
on me, just, ‘Damn, I'm leaving my boy.' We talked and he gave
me his blessings of like, ‘Man, just go do what's best for
you.'"
George averaged 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 74
games last season.
In 14 NBA seasons with the Indiana Pacers (2010-17), Oklahoma
City Thunder (2017-19) and Clippers, George has career averages
of 20.8 points, 6.3 boards, 3.7 assists and 1.7 steals across
867 games (819 starts).
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