It was always the Sixers. How do I know that? Paul George literally opened his front door to start the meeting and had an Allen Iverson shirt on:

PG couldn’t start his tenure with the Sixers any stronger than immediately pandering to Philly fans. A man after our heart.

And lets not kid ourselves, I know the Warriors tried to make a trade push, but this decision was made when Joel Embiid hit PG with the side-eye during NBA Countdown:

Which, if Joel Embiid can recruit this well in only a couple minutes of airtime, just imagine what he’ll be able to do during the Olympics in a couple weeks.

Ramona Shelburne detailed how the Sixers landed Paul George for ESPN.com. The meeting ended up getting delayed because Dr. J and Josh Harris’ plane got caught in a weather delay:


Sunday evening, George invited the Sixers’ brass over to his house in West Los Angeles to make their pitch. The meeting was set for 8:30 p.m. local time, sources said. George was flying back from a vacation in Mexico. Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey was at the ready. So were general manager Elton Brand and executive vice president of basketball operations Peter Dinwiddie, whom George and his family knew well from their time together in Indiana earlier in George’s career.

But the plane carrying Harris and Dr. J was delayed by weather, and a decision had to be made. George’s longtime agent, Aaron Mintz, called him to ask if he wanted to wait.

“Of course,” George told him.

Of course you wait for Dr. J … and the guy who could be paying you only the fourth maximum contract given to a player 34 years and older in league history. (Curry and LeBron James are the only other players to have received such deals.)

Both the Sixers and George had waited so long for this moment, another two hours — and a 10:30 p.m. start time — was a small price to pay.

When the Sixers finally arrived at George’s house around 10:30 p.m., they quite literally had their answer.

George was wearing an Allen Iverson T-shirt.

It would’ve been so Sixers if they lost out on their #1 free agent because the owner’s private jet was delayed. But after the Clippers didn’t want to give PG a fourth year and the Warriors couldn’t bang out a trade the Sixers were the only contender left.