Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey gave some insight into his team’s pursuit of Paul George. Morey said that the intel gathering process started before free agency opened.
Morey said the team had been listening to George’s Podcast P podcast for clues on where the star wing was leaning before free agency. Philadelphia’s front office was also confused about what the LA Clippers were thinking with George’s free agency.
“We had listened to every Podcast P podcast and, you know, literally like had been taking notes on them for months basically,” Morey said. “And so, this press release comes out and we’re all looking at each other, we’re like, ‘This seems good.’ And then we’re like reading it again, we’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s really good. What are the Clippers doing? We don’t understand.'”
Morey likened the process back to trying to sign Chris Bosh from the Miami Heat when he was leading the Houston Rockets front office. He said he thought the Clippers would eventually relent and re-sign George.
“So, I mean, we had heard that they, you know, sort of were going to probably draw a line, but we actually thought the whole time they were going to, and I’ve had this before,” Morey said. “I was going after Chris Bosh years ago, he was coming to us because Miami had drawn a line, and then Miami undrew the line at the last minute. So, I really thought that was most likely what would happen.”