Paul George says the chance to play with Kawhi Leonard on the Los Angeles Clippers “seemed like an opportunity that I couldn't pass up.”
George says he and Leonard spoke during Leonard's free agency. Once Leonard told George he was leaning toward going back home to California, that's when George requested a trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder so he could team up with The Claw on the Clippers, the team he grew up rooting for as a kid:
Article Continues Below“We talked. Just wanted to see what the possibility would be to play together,” George told Rachel Nichols of ESPN. “And then as he's going through his free agency, looking at the teams he was looking at, coming back to L.A., it seemed like an opportunity that I couldn't pass up.”
Paul George signed a four-year deal with the Thunder last summer. Pretty much everyone in the NBA thought PG was going to play out that contract in OKC, or at least most of it.
However, Leonard is clearly a player George has wanted to play with for quite some time now. It's not every day you get the chance to play at home with another superstar, and George didn't want to see this dream situation pass him by.
The Clippers, for the first time in franchise history (sorry, Lob City fans) are title contenders with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard on the roster.