Paul George, one of the most slandered players of the current era, has been unlucky with injuries throughout his career. Fans have gotten after P for his absences and even his playoff performances. Once, after a stellar playoff with the LA Clippers, he had dubbed himself Playoff P. Even his podcast name, Podcast P, comes from a place of fan derision.
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George’s experience with the fans has indeed been bad. We get an inkling of how unjust it was when former teammates describe it from their perspective. Raymond Felton saw firsthand what PG faced from fans during their time together at the Oklahoma City Thunder (2017-19).
Felton was a good role player, but never quite enough to gain expectations or bad enough to disappoint them. He ended his career playing with George and Russell Westbrook on the OKC roster, where he saw the type of insanity they had to deal with regularly.
Felton’s final two years coincided with the two years of George’s Thunder experience. First year, the supposed super-team lost to the Utah Jazz, led by a rookie Donovan Mitchell, in the first round. The next year, they were sent home by Damian Lillard’s half-court ‘bad shot’ over George.
Felton detailed how unfair criticisms and flat-out hatred have followed and, in some cases, overshadowed both PG and Westbrook.
“We was locked in. We was tied in,” said Felton on Podcast P, remembering the 2018-19 experience. “I was kinda one of the older guys on the team, so I was the vet… somebody gotta hold everybody accountable and I feel like I was that guy… but ay, that man was frying people.”
PG’s near-MVP performance that season was certainly a sight to behold. He finished 3rd in both MVP and DPOY and likely would’ve won Clutch Player of the Year if it had existed back then. He hit game winners all over the country, from Philly to Brooklyn.
Maybe that’s why the slander ramped up so heavily when he was traded to LA for a record number of draft picks, along with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari. Unfortunately for basketball fans and Clippers believers alike, George would never reach that standard of play again. The 213 era of LA’s little-brother franchise ended without a Finals appearance.
Still, it shouldn’t erase his career accomplishments. “Once again, you got these clowns out here, who feel like they got so much to say about playing the game of basketball, and they never did what he actually did,” said Felton.
“But, you know, for them to have the words that they say about P or about Russ… I played with those guys and I know the body of work. I know what they put in,” he added. Felton then praised the work ethic of PG and Westbrook.
“These dudes really work. These dudes are major superstars in the league, in the world. But people don’t understand it… There’s a lot of guys out there who have that fame, but they really don’t love the game; they don’t like the work. I can honestly say, seeing it, PG does,” added Felton.
Expectations kill joy, as the saying goes. George, a late lottery pick, wasn’t much of a contributor behind Danny Granger for his first few years. He only got a larger role after injuries melted Granger’s knee. If you take these factors into account, then George is a runaway, all-time great, unprecedented success story.
Unfortunately, as he grew and grew as a player, it was never fast enough to catch up to what people thought he could be. After those early series for the Indiana Pacers, where he went face to face with a prime LeBron James and the Heatles Miami Heat, nothing could scratch that itch.
Basketball should be fun. While PG’s career may not be everything that people expected after his early meteoric rise, it is certainly a great one.
George will be remembered as one of the best ball-handling forwards ever. His smoothness off the dribble, combined with his shotmaking, has inspired the next generation to a huge degree. That should, and will, count for something.
