{"id":87115,"date":"2024-07-23T21:58:27","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T01:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=87115"},"modified":"2024-07-23T21:59:02","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T01:59:02","slug":"sixers-highlights-paul-george-introductory-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/23\/sixers-highlights-paul-george-introductory-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlights From Sixers Star Paul George\u2019s Introductory Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, the Philadelphia 76ers held a press conference for star swingman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a>, who agreed to sign a four-year contract with them on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/eastern-conference-team-aces-day-1-of-nba-free-agency-with-huge-signings\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the first day of free agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Chased by the Golden State Warriors and perhaps enchanted by the Orlando Magic, there was no guarantee he\u2019d land with the Sixers. However, after the Warriors failed to complete a sign-and-trade for George, the stars aligned in Philadelphia. Now, he\u2019ll join 2023 NBA MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/embiijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Embiid<\/a> and 2024 NBA Most Improved Player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/maxeyty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyrese Maxey<\/a> in pursuit of a championship. One of the few Big 3s in the NBA, the Sixers project to be a formidable contender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought everything just aligned perfectly,\u201d George says of leaving the Los Angeles Clippers for Philadelphia. \u201cWhere they&#8217;re at and where they&#8217;re trying to go and where I&#8217;m trying to get to, as well. I think we got a real legitimate shot.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Highlights From Sixers Star Paul George\u2019s Introductory Conference<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ve always been a fan of Tyrese and Joel from afar,\u201d George reveals, \u201cand Joel has secretly been one of my closest All-Star Game friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Philly Paul is ALL IN. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fvveVuwQuO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fvveVuwQuO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sixers\/status\/1815798025714823350?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 23, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026It kind of felt inevitable that at some point we would link up and be teammates,\u201d he admits. \u201cSo, I&#8217;m all-in\u2026 I&#8217;m excited. I\u2019m looking forward to this next opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Sharing The Workload<\/h3>\n<p>In joining the Sixers, George isn\u2019t just along for the ride.<\/p>\n<p>A nine-time All-Star who\u2019s universally recognized as one of the best two-way players in the world, he\u2019ll be doing some heavy lifting. The 34-year-old stresses the importance of sharing the workload. Nonetheless, he\u2019s a key scorer and defender. As a result, he needs to take as much pressure off of Embiid as possible.<\/p>\n<p>The goal?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I can kind of help (Embiid) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/40625699\/paul-george-all-76ers-tyrese-maxey\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">get through a season healthy<\/a>,\u201d George says, per ESPN\u2019s Tim Bontemps.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cAnd again, it&#8217;s just not putting so much pressure on him. Regardless of how good you feel, I think pressure causes a lot of injuries as well, and you think you have to get overplayed, you have to touch every possession, that kind of just wears you down, especially for how physical he is.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;So that&#8217;s the key,\u201d George concludes after discussing Embiid\u2019s lengthy injury history. \u201cEverybody do their part, make sure we&#8217;re working on our bodies, and that we don&#8217;t just put that pressure on one individual to go out and win games for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The third overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Embiid has missed 368 regular season games over his career, about four and a half season\u2019s worth. He\u2019s missed another seven games in the playoffs. Though perhaps an insignificant number in a vacuum, his absences are magnified in a seven-game series.<\/p>\n<h3>Facing Pressure From Fans<\/h3>\n<p>As far as the pressure George and his teams will face from Philly\u2019s notoriously tough fans, he says he\u2019s \u201clooking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think pressure is good. I think intensity is good,\u201d George considers. \u201cThat\u2019s what you get up for. You want the fans to be fired up. You want them to put that pressure on you to go out and win games. That\u2019s our job.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;I\u2019m looking forward to it&#8230; at the end of the day, it\u2019s <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BrotherlyLove?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#BrotherlyLove<\/a> right? &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Paul George on playing in front of Philly fans <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/x9VsZ5FmTB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/x9VsZ5FmTB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sixers\/status\/1815800188973273151?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 23, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe as critical and as hard as you can,\u201d he adds. \u201c\u2026I\u2019m not scared or shying away from that at any point. At any stage. That\u2019s what you look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, the Philadelphia 76ers held a press conference for star swingman Paul George, who agreed to sign a four-year contract with them on the first day of free agency. Chased by the Golden State Warriors and perhaps enchanted by the Orlando Magic, there was no guarantee he\u2019d land with the Sixers. However, after the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":87121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1608,62,3],"tags":[267,297,4557,50],"class_list":["post-87115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-76ers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-joel-embiid","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-offseason","tag-paul-george"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}