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It didn’t get nearly as much attention as the fact that Jaylen Brown would be squaring off against the Boston Celtics for the first time in his career, but Tuesday night’s matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers also marked Paul George’s first trip back to Philly since being dealt to Boston for Brown in the summertime blockbuster that launched a thousand references to beef, lamb chops, gravy and all manner of other comestibles.
It’s understandable that George’s return didn’t resonate as much as the face-off between Brown and Jayson Tatum, given the nine years they spent together in Boston and the unpleasant public falling-out that has come since the trade. George, after all, wasn’t a lifer in Philly to nearly the extent that Brown was in Boston.
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“Had I been here eight, nine, 10 years, it’d be a different story,” George said, according to Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe. “I was here two years. […] Obviously, it’s a tremendous fan base. A great sports town to play in. So that was appreciated. There’s no ill will for me. It’ll be just fun to compete. Outside of that, it’s a normal game.”
Sometimes, though, even a normal game can get a little testy.
After drilling his fourth 3-pointer of the night to give the visitors an 18-point lead with just over 9:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, cameras caught George giving something else to one lucky attendee at Xfinity Mobile Arena:
So, Paul: What happened to turn “no ill will for me” into “flipping some guy the bird?”
“There was a fan being an a**hole,” George said in the locker room after the game. “[The] ball rolled to him. He looked me dead in my eyes, dropped the ball on the ground as if, like, I’m a dog to go fetch or go get it, instead of passing the ball to me like a normal fan would do. And, so … yeah. So then I rolled him a middle finger in return.”
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The pointed salute was far from the only portion of screw-you that the six-time All-NBA selection served up on Tuesday:
George ripped off a 14-5 run by himself over a four-minute span in the fourth quarter, turning Tuesday’s tilt into a laugher. He’d finish with a game-high 36 points on…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/paul-george-gives-ahole-sixers-fan-the-finger-late-in-celtics-blowout-win-155721219.html
Author : Dan Devine
Publish date : 2026-11-11 15:57:00
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