Paul George is in a tough spot, and unless he wins a championship, this will define the rest of his career—maybe even his legacy.
At this point, he’s a full-fledged ring chaser, and that’s a dangerous game. Staying with the Indiana Pacers would have given him stability, but let’s be real—that’s easier said than done. Small-market teams struggle to keep stars when guys like LeBron James are constantly luring them away to build superteams during his time.
This trend started in the 2000s when Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton, and Karl Malone formed a one-season powerhouse with the Lakers, only to be taken down by the 2004 Detroit Pistons. But since then, it’s been proven effective—especially for LeBron, who stacked his championship runs with names like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Ray Allen, Dwight Howard, and Anthony Davis. Sure, Allen and Howard weren’t in their prime, but they were still crucial to LBJ's NBA Finals campaigns. The problem is that the superteam model became the standard, and not everyone who followed it found the same success.
George has been part of that cycle for years. He left Indiana for Oklahoma City, then moved to the Los Angeles Clippers, and now he’s in Philadelphia. OKC gave up Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis to get him. Oladipo’s time there didn’t amount to much, but Sabonis eventually became the key piece that helped the Pacers land Tyrese Haliburton. When George was traded to the Clippers, OKC walked away with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (now an MVP contender), Jalen Williams (an All-Star in 2025), and a mountain of draft picks. After all of that, George still walked away from the Clippers to sign a four-season deal with the 76ers.
Philly made sense as a destination at the time, but did he really improve his title chances? He just swapped one injury-prone co-star (Kawhi Leonard) for another (Joel Embiid). And now, despite his star power, he’s not even the Sixers’ main guy.
Tyrese Maxey, a non-lottery pick who’s been improving every year, has won over the fans. George, on the other hand, is essentially Tobias Harris’ replacement. His numbers are solid, but if they don’t improve, he’ll find himself lumped in with Kelly Oubre Jr. and Quentin Grimes in the scoring hierarchy. Before his season-ending injury, Jared McCain was even threatening to put up better numbers.
Let’s not forget George is turning 35 in May. Even minor slip-ups—like getting outworked by Nic Claxton on a game-winning putback, or his two-point game against the same Nets team a couple of weeks back, will be magnified, especially when you’re on a $212 million contract. And we haven’t even talked about his playoff reputation.
Right now, PG-13 is stuck in the ring chaser vortex, and time is running out. If he wants to rewrite his legacy, he has to go all-in—because at this stage, there are no do-overs.