Kiss The Ring: After Paul George Randomly Took Shots At The Charlotte Hornets "Lack Of Winning Culture", They Now Have More Total Rings Than He Does In His Entire Career

Garrett Ellwood. Getty Images.

Last week, Paul George went on his podcast and decided to randomly throw shade at the Charlotte Hornets. It was out latest example of Paul George showing his extreme lack of self-awareness, considering his main point was that his career would be over if he went to the Hornets because they do not have a culture of winning. Forget where George currently plays, forget where he's played in the past and his own contributions (or lack thereof) to those "winning cultures", for whatever reason he felt compelled to call out the Hornets

Well well well, would you look at what's happened since. 

Now admittedly, I'm not a huge math guy. I went to ASU for a reason, and I can assure you, it was not because I had some sort of Good Will Hunting situation when it came to mathematics. Real ones knew how to load/save formulas in our TI-86 Graphic Calculators for exams. 

(Also side note, did anyone else play that game on those TI-86s where you were some sort of drug kingpin? Wild times in the early 2000s, I'll tell ya)

But what I do know is that 1 > 0, and if we're going to be talking about "winning culture" and contending for championships on a basketball court, well then I'm afraid the facts are the facts

Charlotte Hornets - 1

Paul George - 0

The basketball universe has a funny way of working out, I'd say. One day, Paul George is shitting on the Hornets for not having a winning culture, and the next day, they are sitting alone atop the Summer League mountain as champions. And hey, even if you think none of this matters and doesn't actually count, I'd disagree. You get a trophy and a ring, and for this moment in the NBA calendar, it's all we have. It's as "real" as anything else at the moment, and while it's not the Larry O'Brien or even the IST trophy, it's still more than Paul George has won in his entire career which is pretty funny considering his comments the other day

Plus, not only did the Hornets' #4 pick Kon Knueppel look awesome and win MVP

but this was also their first "title" or "trophy" in any capacity. They'd never won an NBA title, ECF, division title, or summer league title in their entire history before last night, so I say go nuts and celebrate it. Why not? That's what summer hoops is all about. It's not that serious, and for a team looking to establish something during a rebuild, this isn't a terrible place to start.

I think it also goes to show that the Basketball Gods are always watching. There was no reason for Paul George to take that shot at CHA, so what do they do? They now give the Hornets more rings than Paul George. That's cosmic justice if you ask me. 

Now, how will this translate to the real season? The good news is it's not like things for the Hornets can get much worse than we saw last year (19-53), so is itpossible with decent health they could have a season that looks similar to the 2024-25 Brooklyn Nets? You know, a team that plays hard every night, has some competitive moments here and there, but ultimately, the talent gap is too wide, and they finish with around 26 wins. That would still be an improvement in terms of the rebuild, and then who knows, in a season or two, if these young players turn out to be hits, we could be talking Play In down the road.

Either way, for the moment they are champions, and that's something Paul George cannot say. How's that for a "winning culture"? 

Advantage, Charlotte.