Everything changed for Paul George when he stopped trying to be someone he’s not.
The Clippers forward spoke with The Post about his struggles with mental health during the 2020 NBA Bubble, when he said he played with a ferocious attitude about the game. George’s desire to be the best consumed him, he said, and it reached a point where he was playing with an “agenda” that he didn’t agree with.
“I had a different agenda when I was young — and … when I was in the bubble, I was still living with that same agenda and that agenda was haunting me,” Paul recalled in an interview with The Post on behalf of BetterHelp, the world’s largest therapy platform. “My life just revolved around basketball at that point. I was always just wrapped around it, stuck in basketball mode and wanting to be the best player, wanting to dominate, just having this [angry] attitude about the game.”
As Paul was navigating his on-court identity, the Clippers went through their own struggles, blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals. The collapse became a running joke on NBA Twitter and George took the brunt of the trolling, including the infamous “Pandemic P” nickname.
It was a toxic combination of things that weighed heavy on George, who said he knew he wasn’t OK. He was in a “dark place” in the bubble and experienced anxiety and a bit of depression.
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George previously said during an appearance on Serge Ibaka’s cooking show, “How Hungry Are You?” that he didn’t sleep for nearly two weeks because his mind was racing at night, thinking about games.
After the bubble season, he sought therapy, which led to his mission with BetterHelp to give away up to $3 million dollars in free therapy to people in need of help.
“It just brought peace to me, knowing that I’m not perfect,” he said about sharing his story publicly, adding that “life has been great” since he left the bubble.
George became a father for third time in 2021 and married the love of his life in 2022.
The 32-year-old tied the knot with Daniela Rajic in an intimate California ceremony on July 13, 2022. The couple, who began dating in 2013, share three children — Olivia, 8, Natasha, 4, and Paul, Jr., who turns 2 in October.
“I’m happy,” George said. “I feel complete. I feel wholesome. I feel like I’m in control of my life and what’s going on. I’m in control of how I want my kids to be. I’m in control of who I am as a father and as a husband. I mean, life is just beautiful for me.”
George said a turning point for him came when he realized that there’s more to life than just basketball.
“I think now I view [life] so much differently,” George said. “Life is bigger than basketball. I’ve got kids to worry about, I have my family to worry about.
“That is my greatest thing in life now, is my kids, that’s who I’m living for. … At the end of the day, those are the ones that opinion matters most. If I’m doing my job as a father, if I’m doing my job as a parent, that’s all I care about at the end of the day.
“Every morning I get to wake up, I get to be the father of three unbelievable kids, the husband of an amazing wife. That’s just kind of how I live from a day to day standpoint. I want to do everything the best and want to make them the proudest that I can. And, to be honest, that was the changing point that brought me a lot of peace.”
The man George is today wouldn’t recognize the person he was inside the 2020 NBA Bubble, he said.
“I see life in a whole other light,” George said. “Because there are buckets that I live in now. You know what I mean? From fatherhood, to a teammate, to a husband, to a businessman. There’s just so many different buckets that my life has taken on that I have to be present, so I feel like you have to be in a good place.
“Without me having that moment [in the 2020 Bubble] there is no way I would be in space that I’m in today. Because you know, I feel like that was a controllable situation. If that was the other way, who knows what the outcome of that would be. That’s where I was mentally — not knowing where to go, what to do and where to turn to. I was very fortunate that that was the least that was controllable.”
George was named an All-Star for the eighth time this season, with the 2023 NBA All-Star game taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Heading into the All-Star break the Clippers are in fourth place in the Western Conference at 33-28.