Mourning a Loss, Montrezl Harrell Partly Blames His Grief for Paul George Beef in 2020: “After Having to Bury My…”

Paul George might be leaving Los Angeles, but no one will forget the aspirations that came when he and Kawhi Leonard signed in 2019. The duo brought thrill and ecstatic energy to Clippers fans. Their teammates were even convinced that they were ‘championship worthy’. Their remarkable talent and depth suggested the same. They had a brilliant offense and a lockdown defense. However, they never won. The closest they came was in 2020 during the Orlando Bubble. But at that time, the team was divided by their own personal difficulties. One former teammate recently pinned down his experience.

Montrezl Harrell, a scrappy and brawling center was one of the vital components for the Clippers during the 2020 playoff run. He was the reigning Sixth Man of The Year averaging 18.6 points that season. But his grandmother’s passing affected him dramatically. “I shoulda never went back to the Bubble” he told Players Tribune. One of the aftermaths of his grieving was his not having a grip on his feelings, which he generally did. It led to a fight with now 76ers forward Paul George.

During the series against the Nuggets, George failed to switch during a play which led to an open Nikola Jokic basket. Harrell remembers being irate with George. “I told P right then and there, in front of coaches and everybody, “I will knock you the fuck out, bro. You’re trippin’. You were wrong, bro. You’re WRONG,”. It was all due to the emptiness he felt with his grandmother’s passing. “I came back to the Bubble for this, after having to bury my grandma in the ground, bro. The person who raised me, the reason I play this game. I was so fucked up mentally, more than I even knew” Harell admitted.

During his interview with Player’s Tribune, Harrell even admitted how he was wrong to have burst out on George the way he did. However, he was not in the right place mentally, which led to the uncontrolled outburst. Eventually, the Clippers lost the series after having a 3-1 lead. After that season, the Clippers refused to offer a deal to Harrell.

He eventually signed with their city rivals, the Lakers. A deal that angered his former teammate Patrick Beverley. He too later joined the Lakers but it wasn’t right after he left the Clippers.

Lou Williams did not want to be in the bubble either

It wasn’t just Montrezl Harrell who found it challenging to face the grueling environment of the Orlando Bubble. Even an NBA veteran who has never won a championship, Lou Williams admitted he didn’t want to be there when appearing on Trae Young’s podcast From The Point. He admitted the Clippers didn’t have the right mindset which ultimately showed in their egregious meltdown against the Nuggets.

“Mentally, we weren’t in it for the long game. We didn’t really see the pot of gold at the end of it. We started to hear the rumblings that nobody is going to respect this ‘chip so we kind of just took our foot off the gas,” Williams revealed.

Now that the team is at the end of the once riveting Paul George and Kawhi Leonard era, their chances of a championship have slimmed drastically. There has been no significant off-season movement to replace PG13. Leonard and James Harden are the only pillars left from last year’s run along with Russell Westbrook who is the leader of the second unit.

To compete in the tight Western Conference, the Clippers need to add drastic firepower. Without it, they might be as they were during the 2020 Orlando Bubble. Maybe they could look to sign Harrell, who currently sits without an NBA contract. Do you think the organization will welcome him back? Let us know your views in the comments below.