The Paul George-Jared Dudley Feud Will Not Save the NBA
What is the spiciest feud in the NBA right now? Why Jared Dudley and Paul George, obviously. Dudley recently released a mini-book on Kindle about his experience in the NBA bubble. In it he explains that the Lakers kept to themselves at Disney and revealed that they took offense at George thinking he was a star on the level of LeBron James or Anthony Davis.
"We hear some of those guys talking about how they’re the team to beat in LA. It’s fine if Kawhi says stuff like that. He’s defending a championship. We don’t trip if someone like Patrick Beverley is talking trash; that’s how he feeds his family. We get it. We respect the hustle."
"But we think it’s disrespectful for Paul George, who hasn’t won, to put himself on the level of Bron and AD. This motivates us. When we see those guys around the compound, we don’t really kick it with them. The one exception of course is Markieff, whose twin brother, Marcus, is on the Clippers. This probably keeps tensions from boiling over."
It would be best to file this one in the "athletes looking for slights anywhere they can find them" category. It can't really be okay for Patrick Beverley to talk, but not George, who has been on five All-NBA Teams and played in six All-Star games. I mean, PG has even been on more All-Defensive teams than Beverley, but I digress.
George went out and scored 36 points on 13-of-20 shooting in a win over the Cavaliers on Wednesday night. After the game he was asked about Dudley and just responded with a couple God bless yous.
“God bless him. God bless you, Jared Dudley. I don’t know what it is. Dudes love throwing my name in stuff, but god bless you, Jared.”
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) February 4, 2021
Paul George when asked about Jared Dudley’s comments about him. #Clippers pic.twitter.com/wkCrLvnxGq
That's a tremendous response. The look on George's face seems to say, that Jared Dudley? As recently as a few months ago, Dudley and George had the same number of rings. Was Dudley allowed to be offended back then? Or was he retroactively offended once he got his ring? And Anthony Davis was in the same situation as both of them last summer as well!
Anyway, what a great rivalry. These are two of the best teams in the league and we have no idea when they will even meet again. For now they'll just have to settle for glaring at billboards and getting annoyed at First Take segments. Or blog posts blowing this all out of proportion.