Scheduled
Milwaukee Bucks at New York Knicks
2026-27 · Regular season
Paul George calls his Philadelphia return ‘a regular game’ but is ‘not sure’ about the reception: ‘I helped land them a future piece’
Paul George says his first game back in Philadelphia is “a regular game,” that his two injury-hit seasons there would be a different story had he stayed “eight, nine, 10 years,” and that he is not sure how the crowd will greet him after the trade that brought Jaylen Brown to the 76ers.
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Paul George says his first game back in Philadelphia is just another game. Speaking at the Boston Celtics’ shootaround on Tuesday morning, hours before Boston visits the Philadelphia 76ers, he also said he was not sure how the crowd would greet him.
“Yeah, no, it’s a regular game, a regular game. That’s how I’m treating it,” George said. “Obviously, we finally play against those guys and compete against them, but it’s a regular game for me.”
George spent two seasons with the 76ers before they sent him, two first-round picks and two second-round picks to Boston in July for Jaylen Brown. Tuesday is also Brown’s first regular-season game against the Celtics, the team he played his first 10 seasons for, and the first time he and Jayson Tatum meet as opponents. Philadelphia, 9-2, hosts Boston, 8-2, at 8 p.m. ET, which is 3 a.m. Wednesday in Cairo.
George on his return to Philadelphia at Tuesday’s shootaround. Video posted by Chris Hine on X.
‘Had I been here eight, nine, 10 years, different story’
Asked whether he had become better at separating the game from the emotion of facing a former team, George pointed to how short his stay was.
“Had I been here, you know, eight, nine, 10 years, different story. I was here two years,” he said. “Obviously, you know, we didn’t have the best of luck for a great, I think, partnership in terms of my ability to stay healthy and on the floor, so that kind of played into a lot of it. But obviously, it’s a tremendous fan base, a great sports town to play in. So that was appreciated.”
The numbers explain what he meant. George signed a four-year, $212 million contract with Philadelphia in 2024 and played 78 of a possible 164 regular-season games there: 41 in 2024-25, when he averaged 16.2 points, and 37 last season, when he averaged 17.3 and also served a 25-game suspension for violating the league’s anti-drug policy. In each of his nine seasons before Philadelphia, from 2015-16 to 2023-24, he had averaged more than 20 points.
‘I’m not sure how the reception will be’
Asked what kind of reaction he expected from the crowd, George said: “I’m not sure, you know, I’m not sure. In some ways, I helped land them a future piece for them. And so with that, I’m not sure how the reception will be.”
George on the reception he expects in Philadelphia. Video via 94WIP on X.
That future piece is Brown, who averaged a career-high 28.7 points in his last season in Boston and finished sixth in MVP voting. He has scored 26.0 points per game over his last four games for Philadelphia, including 29 in Sunday’s 127-121 win in Chicago. On Sunday, he said there was “nothing to talk about” with Tatum before the game. “Check the ball up,” he said.
Playing his best basketball in years
George, now 36, has started all nine games he has played for Boston. He is averaging 20.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists while shooting 46.5% from the field and 42.5% from three, his highest scoring average since 2023-24 with the Clippers. He scored 38 in the opener in Detroit and 27 on Sunday in Milwaukee, with five threes and 16 points in the second quarter.
The Celtics are 8-1 when he plays. Their only other loss came on Nov. 3 in Houston, the one game he has missed.
George and Brown also met in last season’s first round, when Philadelphia came back from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate Boston. Now they will be on opposite sides again, in the other jerseys.
‘He’s been playing at an MVP level’
George was also asked how Tatum, who tore his Achilles tendon in the 2025 playoffs and is averaging 27.1 points and 7.8 assists this season, is handling the attention around the matchup with his former teammate.
“JT is locked in, as professional as they come in preparing for a game,” George said. “He’s been playing at an MVP level, and I think he’s looking at it as another game on the schedule. Obviously, there’s a lot of noise around him … it’s our job to support him and make sure his focus is where it needs to be, for us to come out here and have a chance to play against a really good team and continue to add to his MVP performance resume this season.”
The shootaround soundtrack
The music at the arena set the tone for the night. As the Celtics began their shootaround, War’s 1975 song “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” was playing over the speakers.
“Why Can’t We Be Friends?” playing at the start of the Celtics’ shootaround. Video posted by Bobby Manning on X.
The game is the first of a national doubleheader on NBC and Peacock. For Brown’s comments before the game, read: Jaylen Brown on Jayson Tatum: ‘It’s nothing to talk about. Check the ball up’.
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