[Highlight] “If I’m in free agency, I’m not picking Charlotte… my career is over with if I go there” - Paul George circa July 2025
Which top 20 player would willingly choose to sign in Charlotte?
Steph for one, he went on to say if he ever were to leave the Warriors for whatever reason, he would go to Charlotte.
If only every player had the same familial ties to Charlotte
lol same reason why lebron signs in Cleveland. Who on gods green earth wants to be in Cleveland
Not Joakim Noah.
https://youtu.be/7YpXTTPlqcM?si=WphSgLv21mKmiB6g
Cleveland is the 4 seed lol. OKC too, and even worse since players have spoken about the lack of interesting things hours for hours in any direction as helpful to focus on just balling lol
Before LeBron you could get tix to a Cavs game for 10$
We’re talking about Cleveland, you can buy a house for the price of a VCR
Come on down to Cleveland town everyone, see our river that catches on fire
All their fish have AIDS
What if Cavs got 3 James package LeBron, Bronny, and Bryce?
I got Cavs vs Suns tickets in Cleveland for $4 in (I think) 2019.
Steph also would no longer be a top 20 player in that scenario, where he’s barely an all-star and has no chance of winning a title anymore.
PG isn’t a top 20 player right now
Hasn’t been since he hit the side of the backboard vs the Mavs imo
Wayyyyyyyyy offfff P
PG13%
Bro would be an urban legend and universally beloved if he could stfu.
His early playoff runs and pacers teams were beloved, his comeback after a tragic injury too. Then he has his best year on OKC and was a legit MVP and a not as serious DPOY candidate for a month, finished 3rd in MVP.
But he Westbrook and Melo also got embarassed by Jingles, Rubio and Rookie Spida. Then PG had the audacity to comment on the Lillard shot and keep yapping while shitting his pants on the Clippers.
Bro wouldve been seen as a 2way TMac thats a worse scorer if he didnt ruin his PR. On the other hand TMac would be clowned on as much if not harder than PG if he was playing in the social media era.
Perhaps being completely delusional about your skills and constantly writting checks you cant catch has a correlation with not winning and choking 3-1 leads.
“Bro would’ve been seen as a 2way TMac that’s a worse scorer.” So another words nothing like TMac. Wtf are you even talking about?
But that’s because he grew up there & has ties to the franchise through his father - it’s a unique situation
Yes and the only reason Lebron went back to Cleveland is he grew up there. And Melo wanted the Knicks because he grew up there. And Wade went to Chicago because he grew up there. It is a relatively common thing. Most people either just go to the biggest paycheck in FA or around their home. It’s not overly common for players to go out of their way to sign in a random big city with no other motives.
Pretty sure he fits the bill of a top 20 player that would choose to go there. Just because it’s a unique situation doesnt mean he doesn’t answer the question
Unique like LeBron going back to Cleveland?
But then he never left. So it’s easy to lie about something like that
lol, he was being nice
…but he didn’t
Easy to say when he never was considering leaving GSW
I mean makes sense they’d have the cap room and he can go for another splash bros scenario with kon
Yeah, and LeBron said he wants to play for the Spurs/Pop. A nice thing to say, but hollow without actual action.
I would love for him to Ray Allen the shit out of that
Easy to say lol he could do also say he’d sign in the WNBA but that doesn’t mean much .
“If he were to leave the warriors” is a huuuge if.
What does “star player” have to do with Paul George?
It will always be funny to me how much shit clippers fans talked in the summer of 2020 after trading for him to how hard they’ve turned on him now
Duh, outside of one year, he underperformed relative to expectations. It’s not some ironic outcome; it happens all the time. You guys were once excited for Gabe Vincent and Talen Horton Tucker.
He played the exact same he always did and achieved the exact same thing he had before. Conference finals.
Where did he underperformed relative to expectations? Did he not play at an all nba level and make the conference finals.
Kawhi is the one who underperformed expectations. Yet still to this day, despite his awful playoff performances or bunk knee, clips fans still love him.
Paul George entered free agency as an All-Star from that season.
Hate on him for anything after, but he was at that level in his walk year.
He was all-nba first team and 3rd in MVP voting
I don’t see what that has to do with Paul George. It has been a long time since he was a unquestionably a top 20 player in the NBA, and he definitely was not when he said this.
Wild that we have haters now! I’m choosing to take it as a compliment.
If they were good why not? I’m sure a top 20 player would want to join the current iteration of the team
And they were 21-61 the season entering that summer and 19-63 in Paul George’s first season. Not sure why OP is trying to hold PG to a quote that has zero relevance to today.
LaMelo, Kon, Miller, Moose, and Steph
🤣
Sure what top 20 player would go to the young team with cap space that’s won more games than everyone but San Antonio in 2026?
With Kon, Lamelo, and Brandon , I think you’ll probably see few suitors. They’re in a good position in the east where a Top 20 player can continue to shine without having the gauntlet of the west to deal with come playoff time.
Are you implying Podcast P is a top 20 player
But is he wrong? I’m sure you would say the same if you were in his shoes
Yeah I think he has a lot of clown quotes, but just because they don’t suck now doesn’t mean they haven’t sucked for years
he has a lot of clown quotes
He has a podcast. Clown quotes are regularly scheduled occurrence
What are the clown quotes?
It’s just ironic because he’s super washed and his career is basically over regardless so it’s fair for everyone to dunk on him and bring up this clip because the Hornets are better than the 76ers right now
His career is over but he averages almost 20 and just dropped 28? What are you talking about
This season He’s avging 16ppg on under 43% FG yeah he is cooked
So his career is over because he’s at the level of a solid role player? Y’all are cooked
He’s making like 55m yeah ts is fried
Yeah that’s solid. His career being over or alive has nothing to do with his contract. And that’s a low sample he’s a better player and will show it
he is not super washed he just dropped 28 last game
Against the notoriously stingy Bulls defense.
SGA just went 8⁄24 on that defense lol
13 of those points where in the 4th quarter of a game where his team has a 40+ point lead against bench players on a lottery team.
Was he not supposed to shoot?
Bulls ain’t the barometer for defense 😂
No it’s not.
They were 21-61 the season entering that summer and 19-63 in Paul George’s first season. Not sure why you or OP are trying to hold PG to a quote that has zero relevance to today.
And even worse, say he signs in Charlotte and he flips them three games. They now swap spots with the Pelicans and don’t get Kon. So if PG goes there they aren’t the team they are today.
On either end it doesn’t make sense to hold him to that.
Yes he is wrong.
And no why would anyone say that unless you are stupid?
You could always find yourself in the future playing for any NBA franchise so no need to shit on them in the moment.
Also PG as a player is a loser.
I love their run, but their over/under this year was 27.5 wins. They’re dangerous aF right now, but his sentiment wasn’t wrong at the time.
Exactly. Like the Clippers trading SGA.
For sure. SGA was around the 5-10th best rookie in his class when he was traded. It’s like saying it’s obvious that Jeremiah Fears is going to obviously be a future all star.
The Pelicans would hate to lose him, but if they can get Giannis for him I get it.
Before they turned this season around (after an awful start) PG was not wrong. The narrative will start to change if they either have one hell of a playoff run this year or if they sustain the success through next season.
They got to get in the playoffs first
yeah this wasn’t even a remotely hot take at the time lol
Even right now, it still shouldn’t be.
They’ve been a joke of a franchise for decades, saying this was no different than saying he doesn’t want to go the Kings. Have people already forgotten how dead this franchise looked before they turned it around 3 months ago?
Gonna take a lot more than that to change the narrative.
Only two NBA franchises haven’t won a playoff series since the 04-05 season. Charlotte and Sacramento. Each of them only has three playoff appearances in that span, too.
Even if they don’t win a series, just consistently making the playoffs will do so much to change the narrative.
At this point, a lot of us would be happy with making the playoffs and getting a single playoff win. We haven’t been to the playoffs since we took the 15⁄16 Heat to 7 games
As much as two solid seasons can do for them, one down season is basically a reset. Chutes are faster than ladders. Applies to almost any small to mid market team.
They’re hot right now…but so was Ja Morant at one point. They’ll cool down soon bruh.
They might not cool down. Buuuuuuut they do have some injury prone guys i wouldn’t be the house on
You just wait until we collect all the KK brothers
No, Melo, Kon, and Miller can all shoot and are also all better defenders (Miller & Kon by a mile).
I doubt they’ll continue like their 70 win pace but I feel like them being good will be the standard. Knueppel is a franchise-altering level shooter. He’s amazing and everyone on the team is playing well together
!RemindMe 5 years
Hey I’m all for a team pulling a consistent run of success. But unfortunately the nba is a harsh bitch and teams yoyo around the playoffs all the time
Why do y’all do this like you’re going to care about a reddit comment 5 years from now lmao
!RemindMe 2 years
Yeah, because everybody predicted the Hornets would have the best net rating 3 months into 2026
Yeah I’m ngl idk if this is supposed to be a “look how stupid he is” post but idk why you would feel any other way about a team that had made the playoffs 3 times in the last 20 years
What makes it worse is they’re also in the East.
You’d at least have the excuse of tough competition if they were in the West like the Timberwolves with their playoff drought.
The hornets were not good and before the turn of the calendar were horrible. So idk why anyones trying to mock him for this take
Exactly
No one expected this, they’ve been a dumpster fire for ages and just recently won like 9 or 10 in a row for the first time in forever
you posted this shit again? you already posted this 2 months ago. this is the lamest karma farm shit ever
his old post: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/RBfGCeOsBw
salty clippers fan tryna farm Internet points over PG. how sad
Sixers just smoked the Hornets and Paul George delivered the 3 point dagger to seal the game. Couldn’t have responded to this hate post any better.
Right message, wrong messenger.
Prophylaxis P
He wasn’t wrong
back then he was correct
Win something before you shit on a team’s “winning culture”
Y’all talk about Charlotte like it’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s so weird to me.
Charlotte is much more like a Dallas, and Denver type of place than every other small market in the league.
The hornets are currently PROJECTED to finally not be blown out by 20 in the play in. We are not yet at the point where we can act like this isn’t true.
The best way to change a teams culture is to sell it to someone else which I think might have happened after he said this
Yeah they’re doing good right now but Paul George in a hornets jersey would easily become one of the biggest symbols of being washed, that is historically where star players careers go to die
Ok but most people would agree that Charlotte was a dumpster fire in 2024-2025 and Charlotte just started playing better post all star. Why are there so many revisionists in here?
Picky P
There wasn’t
The dude who just wants a bag and to live in a nice city is talking about “winning culture”
Ok
Bold for a man who has never won anything
Nah, the sentiment made sense at the time. Mind you, the hornets were riddled with injuries and the starters were literally the g-league. Paul George is from Hayward’s draft class too and they are no longer in their prime so this is was a right message wrong messenger type of thing.
Some teams will never get the free agents. The Pacers went to the Finals Last year and the Eastern Conference Finals the year before. Have one of the winningest cultures in the NBA, but still can’t pull a top 20 player in free agency.
At the time you would probably had been shocked if he said the opposite
He was right because at the time they were not good but the Hornets have turned things around this season.
Nobody ever once has said it was PEDs stop spreading misinfo
Oh look, this clip is being shared again.
Yup now we all knew charlotte would have this turn around!
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with him saying this at the time. They were a gutter franchise until basically 4 months ago
Paul George wouldn’t know winning culture if it sat and gyrated on his face.
Paul George is a universal loser. Why do we care what he says or thinks?
Ok, before this season the Hornets have been bad and, worse, irrelevant, but … what kind of winning culture was there with the Sixers when he signed with them?
OP has a Clippers flair but spends a lot of time in the Hornets sub. All that says to me is that they are a salty bitch.
Paul George is an idiot, always has been
why is this here? the hornets are and have always been bad, he was not wrong
I mean they’re in the same room as the Sixers that PG is on. Would play each other in the play in if things stand as is when season ends.
I’d be using this as white board material to get my team up to win.
Update? Thought you did something here didn’t you
What does PG know about winning culture?
Man the best will bring the culture, clearly you not that… since indy
Paul George is overrated. There’s no winning culture there? Go build one if you’re That Guy. Coward.
Idk why people post this like he’s wrong. Its just the wrong messenger lmfaooo
Waiting for Pistons P
There was no winning culture until King Nipple arrived
There’s always the Wizards
Did he say something wrong?
Sky is blue
He’s right though? There’s zero winning culture, it’s just tanking until they get lucky.
What does he know about winning culture?
Paul George and takes that age like milk, a staple of the NBA.
The Hornets have basically been the NBA’s Cleveland Browns for a long time just forced to eat shit from everyone.
You’ve got guys like Paul George saying we don’t have a winning culture, and now we’re starting to turn that around in Charlotte, we make people reconsider their opinions
Honestly, watching that shift and seeing some of yalll acknowledge that we are pretty good, has been my favorite part of this season.
It’s soo lame how it’s just Boston, Lakers (to an extent Clippers because LA) GSW, Heat and New York that is actually an “atractive” destination for all these superstars. It’s way more valuable and harder to win NBA championship with a small market team and teams like Milwaukee, Denver, OKC should definitely be more praised for what they accomplished. Like even Dallas not being from a small market but still never having many superstars coming to the city while in their prime it’s crazy.
Paul George is the most overrated player of his generation. He’s a virus that kills any “culture of winning”.
This was a very reasonable take at the time he said this. They look great recently but before this season they were a mess for over a decade.
Let the hate flow through you even if he isn’t in the game and take out the 76ers
What dos PG know about winning culture?
i accept everything he said at this moment, he complimented the city and stated an obvious fact, charlotte was going nowhere for decades until 3 months ago outside of 2015⁄16 lol
These ring-chasing losers don’t seem to understand that they’re supposed to be the ones bringing that winning culture to the teams they sign for instead of just trying to ride the coattails of another superstar player.
He wasn’t wrong.
I mean… he’s right. If he’d gone to Charlotte, they wouldn’t have a winning culture 🤣
I understand what he means. He’s always been a winner and he can’t be on a team with no winning culture. /s
That’s cool bro
Damn. They won’t be able to check off their list of a washed PED user.
To be fair, he is right back then. Kon really changed that team, something even Hornets fans probably also didn’t expect. Despite of that they are only like few games above .500. Unless Hornets get like multple playoffs seasons, what PG said would not be wrong.
Don’t suddenly act like y’all are not laughing back then in agreement with him lol.
Playing for the Sixers btw
I mean, Charlotte was awful that prior season and hadn’t been good in a while. They’re awesome now, but let’s not act like PG was turning his nose up at an obviously good situation.
Charlotte was one of the last teams I was expecting to turn everything around like this. If they all stay together next year and build on what they’ve been able to establish, they’ll be a 50+ win team for sure.
“There’s no winning culture there. Instead, I have chosen Sacramento.”
Loser P
He’d have to come off the bench
Hes not wrong. Charlotte has always been trash. There is no winning culture. You’re 4 games above .500 in this current one season. That doesnt translate to “winning culture” for me considering the entire franchise history up to the point he made these comments which were before this season
lol no real team wants a useless PG.
Lol, Paul George is “no winning culture”.
He’s not wrong at all. Let’s assume Lamelo is capable of being the #1 on a championship team, what has Charlotte really done to surrounding him with pieces other than try to get more lottery picks?
And PG is right, the more years you spend trying to hit on picks, the larger the gap grows between the oldest and the youngest members of your core until eventually you have to ship out a piece to consolidate a more cohesive team. Who would make the most sense in that situation? The established star with the most value who’s also furthest away in age from the new core’s average.
Play or retire brother
Always a non hornets fan posting shit to make hornets fans look bad and you fucking dipshits flock to the thread to shit on the Hornets for what.
He also doesn’t bring a winning culture with him wherever he goes.
I bet everybody knew that the Hornets were going to be this good around that time
That dunk over LeBron was his apex- he’s been wrong and corny about everything ever since.
You hardly ever play in Philly what’s your point
But you went to the Clippers????
Why would they sign a podcaster?
PG is a chump
Charlotte: “and we took that personally”
Yeah but they also got their asses kicked by PG today so
Needs to go to the HEAT.
The ego on this guy
Wild hearing a bum who never had a winning mentality say this
Beginning of the season, he wouldn’t have been wrong.
Chuck Lee is working magic with that team.
I don’t think he’s trying to be insulting, he’s saying what he thinks other free agents are thinking. And is he wrong? They’ve gone nowhere and had a lot of talent, it’s like they’ve been constantly rebuilding for 20 years.
They need IMO to make this current group go somewhere. And that’s what George is saying they should do, or it’ll be another rebuild.
Jordan was a terrible owner. Of course he sold the team a few years back but I’m sure Paul George is thinking of those years when he talks about the bad culture.
This did not age well.
Ur “career” was over years ago , what is this mid podcaster talking about ? lol? 😂
Good FA all have this mindset, and yall are blaming teams for “tanking” to try to get the only talent that would be possible. Overblown nonsense.
And they Bood the fuck outta Miller
Plot twist: Paul George = no winning culture
But he’s not wrong lol idgaf about what half a season is… that team is historically fucking awful and nobody goes there willingly.
Take this L charLotte
To be fair, until this season that statement has been true for pretty much the entirety of the Hornets existence.
He’s not wrong
This did not age well
Big bro hasn’t realized his career already over 😕
And pg was right
I mean that’s where they were. They just started getting good. He was going off the info he had.
Hope we get sixers vs hornets in the play offs.
Wherever he goes, that team is over.
He’s not wrong yet.
Bruh. You went to the Clippers. TF you trying to shit on the hornets for when you went to the Clippers. lol
26 PTS 13 RBS walked the walk
PG said Charlotte sucks but joined the Clips? Make it make sense. 🤣