It’s no secret that Paul George had a tough first season with the Philadelphia 76ers. After signing a 4-year $212 million deal with the Sixers in the offseason, George only played 41 games due to injury and averaged 16.2 points while shooting only 43% from the floor. Those are not numbers normally associated with George.

As George looks to move forward in the 2025 offseason, he knows there’s work to be done. He and the Sixers expect more and he has to be able to find a way to bounce back and get back to the production that made him a 9-time All-Star.

On the latest episode of “Podcast P with Paul George”, George had Philadelphia legends Gillie and Wallo–hosts of the “Million Dollaz Worth of Game” podcast–on and the two of them gave him some advice on how to handle Philadelphia and their expectations for him:

I represent the real Philadelphia fan. We (expletive) frustrated, bro. It’s not like we don’t got the talent. We have the talent. It’s like we can’t even get everybody on the court together, man. Philadelphia, we like to see effort. Allen Iverson didn’t win (expletive). He will always be the GOAT around this (expletive) because he put in 100% effort. He left everything on the floor. Brian Dawkins, never won (expletive) around here. He will always be a GOAT, because our eyes, look at Brian Dawkins and said, he gives a maximum (expletive) effort every single time, every snap, every snap. Jason Kelce, same thing that you be like ‘Why are they GOATs?’ When we watched them, we watched him give up maximum effort and put their (expletive) life on the line. And we (expletive) respect that. We are a hard working (expletive) city that ain’t got (expletive) bro. You gotta understand, when the Eagles lose, it feels like your (expletive) cousin died, bro, like, not like, like first cousin second, like a third cousin died. Like, just seen at the cookouts a couple times. But, you know he your cousin, right? So when he die, you might not be crying, but you like, dang, we a (expletive) poor city, bro. Everybody, (expletive) house touch, man. If we in the crib arguing with his (expletive), you hear everything. The sports for us is everything that’s just like an escape.

Gillie then threw down his own expectation of George to which George had an answer ready to go:

Gillie: To be real. I gave you a pass this year. This year? You gotta go stupid, bro.

George: Nah, nah. 100%. The most frustrating thing about the last season was, obviously, I came in I was healthy. I didn’t have no hiccups. I spent the whole off season working on my body, getting healthy, and then I get to Philly preseason, I get hurt, and from that point on, like, I didn’t give it full time to heal. I got an expectation. I’m not gonna leave them hanging. I wanna go out there and play. I’m out there and it’s like, ‘Damn’ like, I know something ain’t right. Obviously, the hyperextension—my knee was still bothering me. I had the brace for a long time from the brace, I started to develop the quad tendon injury. Then I had an injury that I didn’t even know, and this was the original of why I was feeling like something’s off, come to find out I had a torn adduct, and the whole time, it’s just like people, like the Philly fans, can be rough on you. I was cool with it because it again, at the end of the day, it’s an expectation that they hold, and I respect that. I’m not one that’s gonna shy away from that. I want that heat. You know what I mean? I want that pressure. It just was unfortunate that, like, ‘Man, I can’t give them everything I got,’ and I ain’t here for no excuses I didn’t hold up to my bargain right but I do know, and I have learned what I need to go and do going forward.

George is still one of the better players in this league when he’s healthy. He can do a lot of good things out on the floor and the Sixers will need him on the floor going forward. The chemistry will grow between him, Joel Embiid, and Tyrese Maxey as long as they play together and get things done.