Paul George Keeps It Real on How the Clippers Negotiations Deteriorated

Paul George Keeps It Real on How the Clippers Negotiations Deteriorated

all right P I understand you from LA and you just left a team with three other players from La James Harden kawhai Lena Russell Westbrook and we know this had to be a hard decision leaving your boys and everything but we know it’s a business out here so at the end of the day you have to do this for your family so I want to know what was the negotiations like with the Clippers to before and whatever through the discussion to let you know that hey I’m leaving y’all and I’m cor to Philly yeah just to put it out there like I never wanted to leave LA right initially I was not trying to leave la la is home this is where I wanted to finish at I wanted to work as hard as possible to win one in La like that was the goal to be here and be committed to La um as it played out though like the first initial deal was I thought kind of disrespectful right and again no in all of this no hard feelings no love loss no like it’s a business like you said um so the first initial deal was like 2 years 60 so I’m like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa two years 60 hey that’s crazy bro that’s crazy that’s crazy so I’m like wow no I’m not signing that like now we’re getting into the negotiating like no we’re I’m not taking that deal um and so they slow like they saying this that like you know we view we want you and Kawai here long term like we want y’all to be here all of this stuff right so then you know as we’re continue to negotiate as the season goes on and mind you this was probably like this was started before the season started so this was kind of like I could be wrong on on actual timing but this was maybe like October is um when negotiation negotiations first started and it was 260 and as we kept going it was like you know they would go up you know inches inches inches um to where it was like 44 45 right but this was like couple months in between before we got it to 40 something so I’m still like nah I’m not doing that then I hear wind of like you know what they’re going to give Kawai so I’m like just give me what Kawai got like right y’all view us the same like you know we came here together we want to finish this [ __ ] together I’ll take what Kawai got like no no problem I was cool with that like and we were still taking less we were taking less Kawai took less I was like if why gonna take less I’m not gonna say I want more than why like I’mma I’m not gonna like it’s not about me being paid more to him like I’mma take what he got y’all give him that give me that they didn’t want to do that so this was before the allstar break so I’m like you know what I don’t want like don’t even let’s not even have no more conversations like let me let’s just play this year out because it was starting to get into like my like my mood now I’m I’m you know what I mean like I didn’t want I didn’t want to have that energy carry over into the team on the court so cuz I can see it starting to bleed a little bit into the team where I was just like disconnected I ain’t want [ __ ] with nobody like I was kind of just you know kind of to myself a little bit so I was like man let’s just let this [ __ ] play out let me get to the to the end of this year and we’ll discuss this again we’ll pick up you know conversations again so we do that right season in I finished healthy 74 years or 74 games played um and had one of my most efficient Seasons so so now we going to negotiations now they now they bring it to three years where we at 150 so basically around what they gave Kawai so a part of me was still like all right that’s cool it sucks that it had to get to this point like that they couldn’t we couldn’t get this figured out a lot sooner but way early right now now we at the end of the year 3 years 150 so I’m I’m I’m I’m like all right like now we’re in we’re in a ballpark you know what I mean now now we can have conversation here and again it still wasn’t about the money because when I went back to have the negotiation at the end of the year I presented the 3150 no trade cuz in the meeting they’re like you know we want you here longterm we want to you know when you’re retired we want you to be a clippers for a lifetime like all of this stuff we want you to be here we want you to be a Clippers your whole career so I’m like cool cool give me the 3 years 150 no trade then like no trade CLA then then I now like I’m taking less but at least I know I’m here like I’m I’m committed to y’all like they didn’t want to do no trade do that wow so then now I’m like all right well then it only makes sense for me to do four years to12 right like at least pay me my money if y’all gonna trade me then y’all gonna trade me but at least like now I’m not in a situation where I could have got more had I just gone a free agency then take this deal and y’all can just [ __ ] me wherever I want and then now I’m on this deal that I didn’t want right so they didn’t want to do that so then I was like now like now I’m I’m I’m I’m open to entertaining what’s what’s out there and then I mean you know through the negotiations they they weren budging they weren’t going to budge I wasn’t going to budge I thought I played I I played well enough for them to you know be like you know what he’s a part of our future like I thought I did that I thought I earned that you know granted we didn’t win while I was there but luck has a lot to do with that you know we couldn’t remain healthy as a unit um but I thought I did enough to earn that to earn that money they didn’t they didn’t want to do it so it was just stal mate we came to to a stale and ultimately it was like all right that ship has sailed like at that point it was like man I like I don’t I I love Steve I love Lawrence but at that point it didn’t even feel right to come back with that type of energy and and be comfortable playing back in La what did Steve say to you I mean you know it’s it’s it’s it’s taking his word you know what I mean that situation is taking his word like no we I don’t want to trade you that’s not the reason I want to resign you which I I get you know um and I understand and I and and I and I I don’t know Steve is is a good dude like you know Love Steve as an owner one of the best owners that I play for um but you know it’s a business like you can’t take you can’t I I I won’t take nobody’s word if they can’t put it in writing right yeah can’t take nobody word if it ain’t in right I like that is it difficult P for players like yourself because as you mentioned all that I’m curious it is a business but you’re also treading that line where it can kind of feel like personal how do you kind of navigate those conversations and remove that emotion kind of out of it like not taking it personally and understanding that it’s business because I would guess that that can be hard at times you know what I mean on both sides yeah yeah no I mean it it the that’s that’s why I had to stop the negotiations during the season because it it was personal like that’s how y’all view me you know what I mean which is fine like in all of this that’s why it’s no love loss no hard feelings like if that’s how y’all view me fine that’s cool now I got to go somewhere else that’s it’s there’s nothing wrong with that like like you said it’s they say it’s business you say it’s business yeah it’s business I got to do what’s best for me and my family if that’s how y’all view me and that’s where my value is then I no no harm feeling like I’mma go where I’m appreciated at at the end of the day who life is it it it’s business like you know I wasn’t I was I was torn a little bit because because of the the I don’t know just the history we had this past five years [ __ ] I was playing through like injuries and stuff I was playing through you know I was you know I was I was everything I had we had some good UPS we had some Downs um but I thought again I I thought I deserve more than especially for the first initial like yeah contract like the first initial conversation it’s hard to not take that personal personal that’s that’s understand negotiations too you know it’s a business you got to maybe start down here and we’ll end up here but that seems that’s a low low starting point to just throw that on the table and show your cards like that it’s like okay right so so that that that was that was like that that part you can’t never like Overlook like that’s that’s really how y’all felt and so that that kind of just was like you know what what what else is out there but it was it was tough bro it was tough conversations I can’t imagine it was tough conversation that’s why it was so stressful like this this whole week week and a half was a very stressful week and a half I wish we could have helped negotiate when he was here I would just like Steve this what you need to do we should have brought our own cont us put us in mall and then after that I’m G tell you you know it it was a great selling though like I went and saw the in it dome like yeah they they walked me through everything how it’s going to look and into it it’s damn near done so it was cool to see it kind of firsthand everything the facility the building is crazy like I went from Laker to Clipper we in Philly that’s feel I mean hey but I love I I’m embracing the new change I love the new change this episode is sponsored by coinbase coinbase is the best and easiest place to get started with crypto coinbase is the most trusted only publicly traded crypto exchange and honestly the best way to get started learning learning about crypto is simply to try it that’s all I did it’s easy to buy a little crypto and get started investing with as little as $20 it’s also a great place to learn about crypto get the latest crypto news directly you might have heard of Bitcoin which was the world’s first cryptocurrency and still the most popular but coinbase has over 200 digital assets on its platform you can trade including ethereum Solana xrp Dogecoin and many more fans of this podcast get $20 in Bitcoin when you sign up 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Paul George reveals how contract negotiations went with the Los Angeles Clippers. #losangelesclippers #paulgeorge #steveballmer
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