	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND 2019

February 17, 2019

Paul George

Charlotte, North Carolina

Team LeBron - 178, Team Giannis - 164

Q. How do you use the All-Star Game? I mean by that, do you use it as something that you actually gauge how you performed, or is it just about fun? Or what do you take from it when you're here?
PAUL GEORGE: It's just about having fun. At the end of the day, it's for the fans. It's just to have fun. Myself, I was just trying to get a rhythm, stay hot behind the three-point line. So just same as usual, just have fun.

Q. Can you speak to Dirk Nowitzki's legacy on the NBA, being that it was his last NBA All-Star Game?
PAUL GEORGE: Yeah, I think Dirk has just been special to this league, probably the most decorated international player that we have and we'll see for a long time. He's been special. He's got patent moves with the Dirk one-legger. You know, I just remember as a kid him being one of my favorite players just because he was so skilled at his size.

I would beat teams spreading them out. I used to play the spread game back in the day, when people wasn't on that game yet. On video games, I put Dirk at the four, had him spread out. Whupping a lot of people's butts on that.

Q. Some of us in this room were in Vegas five years ago. You've come so far since then, and you're playing, by all accounts, the best ball of your career, even better than you were in Indiana. If that didn't happen, have you thought about what your trajectory would have been? Are you proud of where you're at, considering what you've been through?
PAUL GEORGE: I'm not sure. I'm not sure where I would be. Everything happens for a reason, obviously, but I'm not sure where I'd be. I felt really good at that point before I got injured. I felt like I was getting better. At that time, I was going neck and neck with LeBron. I was just ready for what was next to come, and then the injury happened. Since then, I've had so many injuries come up just because of the leg injury. So it was tough, it was tough getting to this point where I am now.

But I learned a lot. I just learned a lot about myself, taught me a lot of character, a lot of mental toughness, and I think just the experience being away from the game for a year, getting to see what was going on and what I was coming back to, it was a learning lesson.

Q. P.G., you guys are among the top in the West right now. You still have Andre Roberson coming back soon. What is this team's ceiling? Is there one? What do you guys have left to prove for the rest of the season?
PAUL GEORGE: We just want to finish strong. We're not out to prove nothing to nobody. We just want to finish strong, start playing good basketball. We do got a heck of a defender at some point returning back to our roster. We just picked up, I think, an underrated player in Markieff Morris, but, again, we ain't proving nothing. We're going to go out and go at everybody that's in front of us.

Q. Paul, you're one of the few people here that can pull off the reverse windmill. Did you get any tips from Vince? And how long did it take you to pull that off?
PAUL GEORGE: Honestly, that's the only way I can spin. I cannot 360 the other way. By default, I got a little V.C. in me.

Q. How good was it to play with Russ? And did you have some good quality time together this weekend?
PAUL GEORGE: Quality time? (Laughter). That's so romantic (laughter). Why, because it's Valentine's weekend too?

No, it's always great to share the court with Russ. You all know how good Russ is. It's fun. It's fun that we continue on to be teammates away from our team. So we had a good weekend.

Q. How is it to play in All-Star Weekend with some of the best players in the world?
PAUL GEORGE: It's great, man. It's great because everybody has a different skill set and a different play style. Not one person on that floor you can compare to another. So it's just great to see everybody come together. You know, without practicing, we just learn how to play off one another.

So it was great. It was great to share the court with some guys that's going to be Hall of Famers.

Q. Speaking of athleticism, Hamidou Diallo, your teammate, mastered the Slam Dunk Contest. Talk about how proud of him that you are, as well as what advice did you give him approaching the contest?
PAUL GEORGE: I'm super proud of him. There's really no advice to give somebody that does something better than you. There's no way I could jump as good as Diallo before the injury or after the injury. He's just a freak of nature.

But extremely proud of him. I thought he just owned the spotlight. He just showed his personality. Things like that could be a confidence booster going forward for us during the season. So just happy that he was just in the moment, and he came home with some hardware.

Q. Paul, you showed off those handles and hit a couple step-back threes. What's it like in this game to be sizing a guy up the way that you did in those moments?
PAUL GEORGE: Who was guarding me?

Q. James.
PAUL GEORGE: What move I do?

Q. Yeah.
PAUL GEORGE: Hit him with his (stuff). No, it's fun, going against James. James is obviously one of the best players in our league. It's always fun. I had to just give him a little dose of his medicine. I got that in my package too. So ain't no travels over here.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297