Paul George reveals Clippers’ 2-year, $60M contract offer wouldn’t match Kawhi’s

Paul George revealed the details of his contract offer from the Los Angeles Clippers ahead of his decision to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency.

George explained that Los Angeles offered him a two-year deal worth $60 million and would not match the contract that fellow Clippers star Kawhi Leonard received on the latest episode of Podcast Ppresented by Wave Sports + Entertainment.

To be honest, I never wanted to leave LA. I wasn’t trying to leave LA in the first place. LA is my home, that’s where I wanted to end up and I wanted to work as hard as I could to win a game in LA. That was the goal, to be here and commit to LA. But at the end of the day, the first initial contract was a little disrespectful, right? And again, in all of this, no hard feelings, no love lost… it’s a business like you said. So the first initial contract was for two years, 60. So I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Two years, 60? That’s crazy! I’m not signing that. Now we’re getting into negotiations. No, I’m not taking that contract and so they’re saying this, that we want you and Kawhi here long term, we want you all here, all that, right? Mind you, this was before the season started… maybe around October when the negotiations started. As we went along, it was like they were going up inches, inches, inches to 44-45 (million/year)… but it was a few months before we hit 40-something. So I’m always like, no, I’m not going to do it. Then I hear about what they’re going to give Kawhi, so I’m like, just give me what Kawhi got. Y’all see us the same way. We came here together, we want to end this shit together. I’ll take what Kawhi got, I agreed to that and we always took less. Kawhi took less, so if Kawhi takes less, I’m not going to do it, it’s not so I get paid more than him. I’m going to take what he got. They didn’t want to do that… Let me get to the end of this year and we’ll talk about it again. We’ll have conversations again… The season ends, I finish healthy. 74 games played and I had one of my most efficient seasons. So now we’re going into negotiations and they bumped it up to 3 years, 150 (million). That’s basically what they wanted to give Kawhi. So part of me was still like, okay, cool. It’s unfortunate that it had to get to this point, that we couldn’t have worked this out a lot sooner, but now we’re at the end of the year and it’s 3 years, 150 and I’m like, okay, we’re in the ballpark. Now we can have a conversation. But it still wasn’t about the money because when I went back to have the negotiations at the end of the year, I presented the three (years), 150, no trade… I’m taking less, but at least I know I’m there. They didn’t want to do a no-trade. They didn’t want to do that so I was like, all right, well, it makes sense that I do four years, 212 (million). At least pay me my money. If you want to trade me, you’re going to trade me, but at least now I’m not in a situation where I could have gotten more, if I had just gone to free agency, then I would have just taken that contract where you could have sent me. They didn’t want to do that, so now I figured I’m open to what’s going on. I thought I played, played well enough that they were like, ‘You know what? He’s part of our future.’ I thought I did that. I thought I earned it. Sure, we didn’t win while I was there, but luck had a lot to do with it. We couldn’t stay healthy as a team, but I thought I did enough to deserve it. They didn’t want to do it. So it was just a stalemate. We got to a stalemate and eventually, it was like, okay, the ship has sailed… I love Steve (Ballmer), I love Lawrence (Frank), but at that point, I didn’t even feel good about coming back with that type of energy and being comfortable playing in L.A…. Steve’s a good guy. I love Steve as an owner, one of the best owners I’ve ever played for, but this is a business where I don’t take somebody’s word for it if they can’t put it in writing, right?

Leonard signed a three-year, $153 million extension with the organization midway through the 2023-24 season. George ended up receiving a four-year, $212 million contract from Philadelphia as a free agent that included a player option for the final season.

This article will be updated soon to provide more information and analysis.

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