Podcast P With Paul George: “Thoughts On James Harden Trade, First Game vs Wemby, & In-Season Tournament”

Paul George shares his thoughts on James Harden ahead of his first game from the team fit, the initial reactions, and the behind-the-scenes conversations leading up to the deal plus more on “Podcast P with Paul George”.

We share highlights of today’s episode of Podcast P with Paul George, presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment, which features PG sharing his thoughts on the recent blockbuster trade that brought James Harden to the Clippers.

Ahead of Harden’s LAC debut vs. the Knicks, PG offers up his reaction to learning about the Harden trade and how he thinks Harden is going to fit in with the team, including insight into Coach Ty Lue’s conversation with PG, Harden, Russ, and Kawhi about making sacrifices on a star-studded team.

“I think he’s going to fit in perfectly. We’ve been practicing today going through plays, going through execution stuff…. you just forget he’s a bucket. He makes it look so easy. And I was just like damn that’s crazy adding that to this team now.”

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

8:51 – PG ON HOW JAMES HARDEN IS GOING TO FIT IN WITH THE CLIPPERS TEAM

“I think he’s going to fit in perfectly. We’ve been practicing going through plays, going through execution stuff. What I love about it is all four of us are high IQ players so like when it comes to game time we all know where everyone’s supposed to be. So we can all run plays in different positions. Like I don’t have to be in this certain spot, James can be in that spot now. Russ doesn’t have to bring the ball up, Kawhi can bring the ball up and we can all get to our spots – run the same play but we can run it and get different options on it based off the player that’s in it…so I like that idea. And then just watching them hoop, and play pickup, we watched James play in practice today and you just forget he’s a bucket. He made it look so easy. And I was just like damn that’s crazy adding that to this team now.”

12:33 – PG ON PLAYING JAMES HARDEN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIGH SCHOOL

“The first time I met James was in a Pangos tournament, I was a sophomore, about to be a junior and I think he was a junior…Somebody gets the rebound they kick it up to James, by himself. Full court pass…the ball bounces [at] the free throw line somewhere around there…So the ball is just sitting there after the bounce. He jumps, takes off off one leg, catches it mid-air, between the leg flush, BOOM! And I’m like ‘yoooo like where am I? I’m from Palmdale, bro. Nobody’s doing this in Palmdale.’ So that was the first time I seen him and at that moment I was like I gotta know who this is. Like who is this?”

16:50 – PG SHARES HIS REACTION TO THE JAMES HARDEN TRADE

“Actually I woke up to it [the trade news] that morning. That next morning I woke up to all these texts. It was funny enough that night I went to bed early that night, right? Probably like nine, ten o’clock…something woke me up at like one, two o’clock in the morning – I don’t even know what it was, something like went off in the house and it kind of just woke me up – I looked around, nothing. I just went back to bed. So I wake up probably seven, eight in the morning, I look at my phone it’s like ‘hey, we got James, like this is what’s going on, we traded this person, that person. I was like shit. I didn’t know it was going to go down that quick. You know, usually trades happen when it’s 10, 15 games in to see how teams…I just didn’t know how fast that trigger was going to be pulled to go over and get him. But I woke up like everybody else did like ‘oh shit we just got James.’”

18:26 – PG GIVES INSIGHT INTO TY LUE ADDRESSING PG, HARDEN, RUSS, AND KAWHI ON MAKING SACRIFICES

“We talked, we came together but I mean it’s nothing secretive or nothing that hasn’t been told. The fact of the matter is, all four of us are, you know, superstars, been superstars, great players. But there’s gotta be sacrifices, right. So that was the main conversation, addressing the elephant in the room – look there’s one basketball, y’all are going to have to figure out how to play on the floor and space and give each other opportunities. But he was like hey listen if you commit to that, I’ll lead you where you need to go. I just need you to commit to it being sacrifices and it being one mission and one goal.”