Tobias Harris Claps Back at Paul George After Carmelo Anthony Podcast Soundbite

Tobias Harris and Paul George traded places, so to speak, in Philadelphia sports fans' curses this past NBA season.

Tobias Harris Claps Back at Paul George After Carmelo Anthony Podcast Soundbite

Paul George Tobias Harris FS Image

The Philadelphia 76ers missed the NBA playoffs for the first time this season since 2016-17. Injuries to the top three players on their team – Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George – derailed what could’ve been a promising campaign. 76ers fans had longed for the Tobias Harris contract to run out before they could make real playoff noise. However, it seems Harris will be having the last laugh in that relationship.

Paul George recently returned to the podcasting space after taking an indefinite break to help the 76ers’ playoff push. However, he didn’t get much done for the team, which went 4-27 after the Eagles’ parade. The Sixers shut both him and Maxey down for the rest of the season with weeks to spare. George, who is in his first season in Philadelphia, described the no-holds-barred attitude of the city’s sports fans thus:

Soon as I roll the window down, they like this, ‘Yo, that’s Paul George’. They said ‘Yo, we could’ve kept Tobias if you gon do this s**t’. It was funny, but it was like some s*** you take to the heart. You’re like, ‘You’re right, that’s facts’. I got to the crib, found the closest basketball, like ‘Yo, let me get right here’.

Tobias Harris, whom George graciously said ‘no offense’ to during the segment, took the heaven-sent trolling opportunity and made the most of it. The Detroit Pistons forward posted the Sixers’ humiliating record since winning the Super Bowl (4-27).

After the parade… 4-27

George played only around half the games in the 2024-25 NBA season as the 76ers sputtered to an 11th seed finish. The former Clippers and Pacers star had easily the most disappointing season of his 15-year NBA career last year. Plagued by injuries and unable to find his jumper, George finished the season with his lowest scoring average as well as his lowest scoring efficiency since his superstar rise in 2012-13.

Paul George still has 3 years left on his 4-year, $212 million deal with the 76ers. The hope for this iteration of the team is that Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, George and Jarred McCain can put together a strong run of games.

Are Tobias Harris and Paul George’s Philadelphia tenures equally disastrous?

There’s no question that the Philadelphia 76ers were catastrophically hampered by the 5-year, $180 million contract they gave Tobias Harris in 2019. The team was unable to rise to genuine contention as they couldn’t find a cost-effective trade for him. Harris stayed in Philadelphia for the entire duration of the deal and never was the main guy in a playoff win. Philly natives clearly loathed him by the end of his time.

Paul George, meanwhile, has been brought in on a contract that’s even bigger. Though it consumes roughly the same amount of cap space by percentage, the stakes are also higher for George. He is a former All-NBA selection and a former MVP candidate with playoff experience. Unlike Harris, he has playoff experience and has won series on his own merits. So the expectations are higher off George.

However, a year into his partnership with Joel Embiid, it is clear that George is nowhere close to delivering. The farce that was the 2024-25 season needs to be reversed fast next season. Philadelphia fans have suffered enough and will not take more contract pains during the fading years of The Process.

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