Paul George slander is officially back on the menu after a long hiatus.
The LA Clippers star struggled in a loss on Sunday to the Milwaukee Bucks. He shot just 7-for-21 from the field and displayed very poor shot selection in crunch time as the Clippers narrowly fell by a 105-100 final score.
After the game, George received a question about the team’s lack of free throw attempts in the contest.
“That’s more of a league question,” George said, according to Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints. “I think we’ve done enough. We put enough pressure. We get contact. 19 to 11 [free throw attempts] today. I think we did enough to get some calls our way.”
George soon saw himself getting roasted on Twitter for the response.
When will the big market Bucks bias stop smh https://t.co/B0NUkS29uN
— NBA Insider Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) March 1, 2021
I’m so sick of this guy https://t.co/Kee9y7xmoY
— J (@_byrie11) March 1, 2021
God this guy is the worst https://t.co/ORzQG3lUKR
— mdburner (@mdburner2) March 1, 2021
Other users correctly pointed out that the Clippers settle for jumpers at a much higher rate than the league average this season.
The Clippers barely attempt shots at the rim so it’s not a “league question” lmao. https://t.co/ygd8EEEN7P
— gabriel (@Gabrielchav13) March 1, 2021
Dude is always crying. They are a jump shooting team, they shouldn't be getting a ton of FTs. https://t.co/1U0lQqUlmS
— Kareem (@Kareem_is_it) March 1, 2021
Again, the Clippers rank 29th in attempts within 5 feet of the rim. They rank 24th in free throw attempts per 100 possessions.
Another example: Lakers are 9th attempts within 5 feet of the rim, 9th in free throw attempts per 100 possessions. https://t.co/Si5nOIQfwx
— Jason Timpf (@_JasonLT) March 1, 2021
It is important to be fair to George here. For one, he has otherwise been playing marvelously this season, posting 23.4 points a game on 51/47/89 shooting splits en route to his seventh career All-Star selection. For another, George was responding to the reporter’s question about the officiating and did not bring up the subject himself.
Still though, the comments came across as a bit of a tone-deaf deflection, which rubbed people the wrong way. George should probably know better at this point given his lengthy history of bad PR from his own doing.
