Paul George Detailed Contract Negotiations With The Clippers And Their ‘Disrespectful’ First Offer

Paul George is now a Philadelphia 76er after finding that the Los Angeles Clippers weren’t willing to give him the kind of contract he was seeking as a free agent. George ultimately got the 4-year, $212 million deal he was looking for, but had to leave his hometown of L.A. and go back to the East to get it.

On Monday, George released a new episode of Podcast P and offered a rare glimpse into the world of NBA contract negotiations, walking through the entire process he went through with the Clippers and why he chose to leave. As he explained, the first round of talks on an extension began in October, when the Clippers presented him with what he felt was a “disrespectful” offer of two years, $60 million.

“I never wanted to leave L.A. This is home. This is where I wanted to finish at. I wanted to work as hard as possible to win one in L.A. That was the goal, to be here and be committed to L.A.,” George said. “As it played out though, the first initial deal was, I thought, kinda disrespectful. Again, in all of this, no hard feelings. So the first official deal was like two years, $60 [million]. That’s crazy. So I’m like, nah, I’m not signing that. This is maybe like October when negotiations started.”

From there he says the Clippers moved their offer up incrementally until, after a couple months, it got to $44-45 million per year. Then, when Kawhi Leonard signed his 3-year, $152 million extension that no one knew was coming, George asked the Clippers for the same deal and got told no. At that point, he shut down negotiations until the end of the season, and when they came back with the 3/150 offer in the summer, he countered with an ask for a no-trade clause, noting he didn’t want to take less and end up being traded somewhere else — as happened to Blake Griffin with the Clippers.

Once the Clippers weren’t willing to do that, George sought what was out there on the market and found the Sixers willing to give him the 4-year, $212 million max and opted to join forces with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.

It’s very interesting hearing George explain how all of this went down, and he does so about as soberly as you could expect from a player not far removed from negotiations. As he notes, the Clippers had their lines in the sand and he had his, and when they couldn’t get those to intersect, he found the team that would. That’s more than understandable on the player side, while the Clippers stance is also fairly understandable (although I’d argue the big misstep was coming in with a lowball offer initially that put George’s defenses up). That said, listening to how all of this went down, it wouldn’t surprise me if the plan throughout was to have George leave so they could hit a bit of a reset button. At no point did they offer George what he was asking at the time, and while George’s demands shifted as circumstances changed, the Clippers wouldn’t jump to meet them.

Now we’ll see if George can meet the expectations in Philly, as those won’t change in his new home and the pressure will only be greater. As for the Clippers, it’s not abundantly clear what their plan is for the near future, but this year they’ll hope they’ve filled the gaps between Kawhi and James Harden enough that, if those two are healthy at the right time, they can be a threat.