Paul George takes issue with Stephen A. Smith's criticism of Kawhi Leonard: "I didn’t like that moment"

LA Clippers star Paul George opens up about his honest thoughts on Stephen A. Smith's jab at his teammate, Kawhi Leonard. During the NBA Finals, ESPN invited a few stars to come to their coverage and break down the games with the analysts. One of the players who came to their show was George.

In Game 3, George was present with the ESPN crew, Smith, Malika Andrews, Michael Wilbon, and Bob Myers. Before the game started, there were reports that Kristaps Porzingis was out due to a dislocated tendon on his left ankle.

After the reports came in, Smith threw shade at Leonard, in front of George. It's known that the two-time Finals MVP often deals with injuries throughout the season. Due to this, he misses significant time, especially during important moments, like the postseason.

In the recent episode of Podcast P with Paul George, he shared his honest thoughts on Smith throwing shade at his running mate.

"I didn’t like that moment… Kawhi wants to play," George said.

"We exhausted a lot out of Kawhi this season. So at some point your body breaks you down… I didn’t appreciate that moment. I know I laughed because the situation was lighthearted, but deep down it was like you gotta let that go, Stephen A."

Smith has always been critical of stars and Leonard has caught his attention recently.

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What did Smith say about Paul George's star teammate?

Smith usually doesn't hold back when sharing his criticism about anyone. Even when George was present, he threw shade at Leonard for consistently getting hurt all the time.

"Nobody on the planet knows what it's like to play without a star than Paul George," Smith said. "I'll leave it at that."

George played along with Smith's joke and playfully told him to not do it. The entire crew laughed at the joke that the analyst made.

Leonard played 68 games for the Clippers this season, which is the most he's played in his career. This was the first time that the star forward played more than 65 games in his career. During that span, he averaged 23.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists.

However, injuries got to him during the last leg of the regular season. He missed the last eight games of their campaign before the playoffs. Even with the rest in between the regular season and the playoffs, Leonard wasn't able to get better. The six-time All-Star missed Game 1 of their playoff matchup against the Dallas Mavericks.

Leonard played in Games 2 and 3, but he was not ready yet. The Clippers decided not to play him for the succeeding game, which led to their early playoff exit.