The Los Angeles Clippers got the NBA community excited when they paired up Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The fans and analysts had high expectations from the duo considering Leonard was freshly coming out of a championship. However, ‘disappointment’ would be an understatement for the pair as they were unable to achieve anything in the past five years.
Paul George was recently signed by the Philadelphia 76ers, ending his time at LA. As many were upset by his underwhelming tenure with Kawhi Leonard, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith called the duo out on First Take. The analyst listed all the reasons he sees the pair as a ‘colossal failure’.
It's obvious it was a failure, no doubt. But I think the way it ended just punctuated how big of a colossal failure it was.Stephen A. Smith on First Take
Smith started by claiming Leonard ‘blackmailed’ the Clippers into recruiting George by threatening them with his option of the Lakers. Which led to a poor deal with the OKC Thunder, where the team lost Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. From Leonard’s injury to the team only making it to one conference final, Smith brutally called out the stars.
To make matters worse, the Clippers even recruited James Harden and Russell Westbrook to save their reputation and win a title. But that has not worked out either and the team is now losing their core player in exchange for nothing. Hence, despite his opinions mostly being controversial, Smith was right about this.
Smith has had an issue with Leonard for a long time now. The 33-year-old’s consistent injuries and absences from games despite getting paid big money does not sit well with Smith. The analyst has even referred to Leonard as the ‘worst superstar‘ in history. However, recently, Smith received backlash for his jibe at Leonard during the finals.
Smith indirectly threw shade at Leonard by using George. At the time, George laughed it off but later on his Podcast P, the star showed disagreement with Smith’s comments as he defended his then-teammate Leonard. This resulted in Smith apologizing but with a twist.
Where Paul George is absolutely right and I do owe him an apology as a professional, that’s Kawhi Leonard’s teammate. And it was the furthest thing from my mind, thinking about how Paul would look on the set with us.Stephen A. Smith on his YouTube channel
The analyst admitted his mistake to George for putting him in that position but did not apologize to Leonard. Smith knew exactly what he was doing and despite George calling him out, the analyst did not change his opinion about Leonard. As George has now left Leonard, it was not surprising that Smith saw the pair as a ‘failure’.
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