INGLEWOOD – Thanks for everything, “Paul, you stink.”

Wednesday was a strange night at the Intuit Dome. Strangely appropriate.

In a slightly early return, Paul George returned to face the Clippers for the first time since signing a four-year, $212 million max contract with the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency. George’s old team won, 110-98to improve to 4-4 while his new team fell to 1-6, including 0-2 in the games he has played.

They booed and cheered him.

He high-fived and harangued.

It was sincere. It was choreographed.

Thanks for everything. Thanks for nothing.

In a game that was televised on ESPN but attended by fewer than 16,000 people, George received a 50-second tribute video.. (Pictures appeared of him dressed as Waldo for Halloween, that ill-advised costume that became a meme. “Where’s Paul, right?” – applicable every time it didn’t appear in the big moments: e.g. elimination from the first round of last season’s playoffsin which he scored 33 points in a good game, but otherwise shot 36% and averaged just 16.8 points as the Clippers’ first option in the other five games against Dallas, and then quickly demanded a max contract or clause of non-exchange to avoid taking their talents elsewhere. The Clippers obviously, wisely, didn’t give in.)

They despised him: “PG, talk less. Play more! read a sign on one occasion when people parked at the much-publicized Wall were holding signs that were intended (an educated guess here) to mock George’s comments on his podcast.

He had told, in an episode of “Podcast P” last summer, what Angelenos would tell him while he was with the Clippers: “No was no, like, ‘Oh, welcome to the Clippers.’ (It was) ‘You in Los Angeles, but you should have been a Laker’… (but) I’m on the B Team.”

He said after the game he didn’t see the signs, but the Clippers seemed to approve of those messages because they put them up. on your 360-degree Halo Board verbiageperhaps in an effort to create a hostile home-field advantage, or because they genuinely believe George should shut up: “PG THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK.”

But it’s all good, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer told ESPN: “Very good human being. “I like it a lot, except when they play against us.”

After the game, in which George scored 18 points in 24 minutes on 7-of-9 shooting, the Palmdale native reiterated his previous positive comments about the Clippers when asked about the tribute video: “This organization was first class… and it was very appreciated.”

And then there was the mixed reaction from fans, half of whom seemed to surprise him that he even invited him, saying on his podcast that came out Monday: “He I never really heard them boo people.“

He has done it now. “I mean, you know, it was stupid,” he said, “I was a free agent, it wasn’t something that required a trade or went against the team. … I did what was best for me in that situation.

“And,” he noted, “there was some applause. I appreciate them.”

And what about his old team? striking new $2 billion home?

“It was great, it was great,” George said. “I wish it had been more crowded. “I didn’t think it was very crowded.”

Passive Aggressive P range.

Nice Intuit Dome you have here; Too bad it’s not out of stock yet.

Between the literal lines on Wednesday, the Clippers were purely aggressive, double-teaming George in his second game after dealing with a bone bruise in his right knee.

He added seven rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block, but Norman Powell – who stated that George’s departure would be a plus for him and the Clippers – outplayed him: 26 points on 8 of 10 shooting.

And so, George was unable to stop the spiral of a Sixers team that currently looks nothing like the contender many expected it would be when Philadelphia added George alongside stars Joel Embiid (who will serve the second game of a two-year suspension). three games against the Lakers). on Friday) and Tyrese Maxey (who was injured on Wednesday).

The Clippers were also supposed to be contenders when George arrived from Oklahoma City in 2018, the centerpiece of a blockbuster trade that paired him with free agent Kawhi Leonard.

But when George left last summer, it was after five unsatisfying and unfortunate seasons: Nice first Western Conference finals appearance you got; Too bad you couldn’t win that championship.

Now it’s in the eye of the beholder whether fans remember George’s best moments or those when he disappeared.

“To be honest, he was a great Clipper,” said Alejandro Sanchez, who wore George’s No. 13 Clippers jersey in Wednesday’s game and slapped the palm of George, who now sports No. 8. , in honor of Lakers great Kobe Bryant, as he left the court at halftime.

“He was part of a Clippers team that took us to a place we had never been before and I respect that,” Sanchez said. “I have to encourage that.”

Or boo, like Joel Caro planned to do.