Paul George wanted the LA Clippers but felt the offer was disrespectful

Paul George said he never wanted to leave Los Angeles but that negotiations over an extension with the Clippers began with a surprisingly “disrespectful” first offer.

George signed a four-year, $212 million free-agent contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. But the All-Star point guard said on “Podcast P with Paul George” that he’s willing to stay with the Clippers for the three-year, $150 million extension they gave Kawhi Leonard, but with a no-trade clause. George said the Clippers wouldn’t do that or give him a four-year, $212 million deal if they didn’t add a no-trade clause.

“I never wanted to leave LA,” George said on his podcast. “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 deal was a little disrespectful. No hard feelings, no love lost in all of this… it’s a business. So the first initial deal was like two years, 60. So I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.”

“It’s crazy! I was like, ‘No, I’m not signing that.’”

Before George agreed to terms with the Sixers at the start of free agency, the Clippers said in a statement that “there was a significant gap” in negotiations to keep the guard in Los Angeles and that the organization had to be mindful of the new collective bargaining agreement, which made roster building incredibly restrictive for tax-paying teams.

“Coming into this offseason, our roster was built with three great players 33 and older, two of whom could become free agents,” the Clippers said of Leonard, George and James Harden, who agreed to two-year, $70 million free agent contracts to remain with the team.

“We wanted to keep them on contracts that would allow us, under the constraints of the new collective agreement, to continue building the team. We negotiated for months with Paul and his representative on a contract that would make sense for both parties, and we found ourselves very far apart. The gap was significant.”

George said the Clippers’ initial offer was made in October. The Clippers, who could have signed George and Leonard to up to four years and $221 million, would agree to a three-year, $150 million extension with Leonard in early January. Leonard said he accepted less than the maximum in part because of the hope of also retaining George and Harden.

At the time, George was still optimistic about getting the same extension with the Clippers. But he said the team would only “go up a few inches, a few inches, to $44 million to $45 million a year after the initial offer.”

“Then I heard about what they were gonna give Kawhi, so I was like, ‘Just give me what Kawhi got,’” George said. “‘Y’all see us the same way. We came here together, we wanna finish this shit together.’ I’ll take what Kawhi got, no problem, I was okay with that and we always took less. Kawhi took less, so if Kawhi takes less, it’s not because I’m getting paid more than he does.

“Give him that, give me that. They didn’t want to do that.”

George said it was before the All-Star break and he decided to put the negotiations on hold because he didn’t want it to affect his mood. When asked by reporters about the status of his contract negotiations during the season, George’s answers became so curt that he declined to discuss the matter until the playoffs began.

George, 34, played in 74 regular-season games, his most since being traded to the Clippers before the 2019-20 season. The nine-time All-Star averaged 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists. He shot career-highs of 47.1 percent from the field, 41.3 percent from three-point range and 90.7 percent from the free throw line.

George said after the season that the Clippers were willing to offer him what they offered Leonard. But George also wanted a no-trade clause. When the team declined, George said he asked for a four-year, $212 million contract so that if he was later traded by the Clippers, he would have the contract he wanted.

George said he spoke to Leonard before he left for Philadelphia and that Leonard supported him.

“I owed that conversation to Kawhi,” George said. “He was like, ‘Go get your bag.’ I consider Kawhi one of my best friends in this league. Someone I’m fucking with. Our families love each other. So it was tough to leave him when I loved being on the court with him. It weighed on me, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m leaving my boy.’ We talked and he gave me his blessing and said, ‘Man, do what’s best for you.’”

After deciding to team up in the summer of 2019 and become the Clippers, the duo parted ways with just one Western Conference Finals appearance in five seasons together as injuries marred the Leonard-George era of the Clippers.

“We couldn’t stay healthy as a team,” George said. “But I thought I did enough to deserve that (three-year, $150 million contract with a no-trade clause). They didn’t want to do it. So it was just a dead end. Ultimately, 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 Los Angeles.”