At his introductory press conference with the Los Angeles Clippers, Paul George expressed how he and the Oklahoma City Thunder front office worked “hand-in-hand” on the deal that sent him back home. Though, to no one’s surprise, the matter of how things ended with Russell Westbrook never came up.
Initially following the trade, there were reports of conflict between the two Oklahoma City superstars. Almost as soon as the news surfaced, George took to Twitter to squash any discussion of a rift.
Following his press conference on Wednesday, George furthered explained how things ended well between him and his old partner in Oklahoma City with Rachel Nichols of ESPN.
[It] was easy, same conversation me and Russ always have. He was happy, he understood. He was all for it. We talked as men and again, he was happy for me and he wanted me to do what was best for me and my career.
George also explained how his move didn’t come “out of the blue” for anyone involved.
…we were all on the same page. The initial plan was to give it another year, see what we could do and I did that. We played another year and it felt like we were just stagnant. Next thing was, let’s move forward with other plans.
