Karl-Anthony Towns was the latest guest to make an appearance on the episode of Podcast P. During his 20-minute appearance, KAT and Paul George spoke about several topics and the impact of social media on players was one of them. The two superstars discussed how social media was the reason behind several players’ lacklustre defensive performances.
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Paul George kickstarted the conversation by revealing his mindset while playing defense. The Los Angeles Clippers star revealed that his goal was to win every possession, defensively. Even though he could end up getting crossed or scored on, he would continue to give all his efforts on the defensive end.
“My goal, every time on the floor, where we’re on defense, I want to win this possession… I might get crossed but how can I make up for it? How can I still win that possession?”
Towns immediately jumped in and revealed that getting “embarrassed” was a part of playing basketball.
“That’s basketball though,” Towns stated.
The Minnesota Timberwolves star further claimed that players are scared to play defense in the era of mixtapes. KAT implied that a player could very easily be humiliated on social media. However, the sharpshooting big man revealed that even some of the best defensive players – Michael Jordan & Dominique Wilkins – had lowlights as well.
“We get so caught up in the hoop mixtape era that everyone’s so scared to end up on social media. But, you forget you gotta play basketball, stuff like that happens to anybody – Jordan, Dominique Wilkins – it don’t matter who you name, it could be any defensive player, great player, it happens to everybody,” Towns said.
The internet is a cruel place, which most often highlights the bad of a player rather than the rights. Karl-Anthony Towns is right here as time and again, detractors have humiliated a player for getting crossed or posterized. However, it takes a lot of courage, in the first place, to match up against some of the best offensive players ever.
Several greats of the game like Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Yao Ming and many others have found themselves posterized. However, the era was different as players’ overall play and quality mattered more than just one clip.
While critics on social media might not realize this, it’s great to see superstars like PG and KAT highlight this fact.
Paul George is one of the best perimeter defenders
Apart from being an incredible offensive talent, Paul George established himself as a brilliant defensive player quite early on in his career. Being one of the best perimeter defenders present in the league, George takes pride in the fact that he can contribute on both sides of the floor.
On numerous occasions, the forward has spoken highly of his defence. During the final moments of the 2022-2023 season, the sharpshooter revealed his inspiring mentality.
“I want smoke every minute,” George said. “I’m not going to shy away from a matchup. I’m not going to shy away from guarding the best player, regardless if I’m the first option on offense.”
Not only was PG a contender to win the Most Valuable Player award, but he also finished top three to win the Defensive Player of the Year honors in the 2018-2019 season. Other than that, the 6ft 8” star even won the steals championship once and got selected to four All-Defensive Teams.
While it may seem like George has been a gifted defender forever, in reality, that isn’t the case. According to PG, as surprising as it may seem, he was a “trash” defender during his younger days.
