Los Angeles Clippers swingman Paul George has used “all the noise” surrounding him during the season to motivate and fuel his strong play, and that play has earned the veteran another All-Star nomination, one that George says is another “milestone” during his 2020-2021 season.
George was officially selected as one of the Western Conference All-Star reserves on Tuesday, and joins teammate Kawhi Leonard, who was voted as a starter on the Western Conference All-Star squad.
“With all the noise, everything going on, you find motivation through it,” George said, according to ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “You dig deep, and you’d be amazed what comes out of it. It was honestly just using everything as motivation, fueling all of that toward this year.
“[All-Star] is a good milestone, the start of how my season is going. But definitely [not] where I want it to end. So I got a lot more work to do.”
Despite the recognition, George isn’t a fan of the idea of playing the All-Star game during the pandemic, and shared his concerns about doing so.
“I am just not a fan of it with everything going on,” George said. “I think it is just smart [to not hold one]. … I get we have an amazing league; I’m not discrediting that. But I don’t think — just in the middle of a pandemic — it is something that needs to be had.”
“Especially, [for] personal reasons, I got fined for spending time with a teammate, or having a teammate over, and yet we are having this All-Star Game,” George continued. “So again, I got personal reasons why I disagree with the game [being held].”
“He’s always been an All-Star, you know, in my eyes,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said of George. “He’s one of the top two-way players in our league; you know he has been for a while.”
“He deserves it. And the kind of year he’s having, you know, this year, it just shows the hard work he put in over the summer to get back to this point.”
