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Paul George: The Origins of Playoff P

Yahoo Sports Videos

How did Paul George become known as Pandemic P, Playoff P, PG 13%? This is the story of how one of the best players in the NBA became the meme king of the playoffs.

Video Transcript

- At this point, we've all gotten pretty familiar with Playoff P, PG 13%, Pandemic P. Why are people saying these mean things about Paul George? And how did the Pandemic P, Playoff P, PG 13% stuff all begin? Well join me as we go on a quick journey back to 2018.

Paul George finishes the regular season dropping a 40 piece. Game 1 of the playoffs dropping 36 against the Utah Jazz.

- Floor. George, 3. That's 3! Make it 8 treys tonight!

- During media availability, he starts touting himself as Playoff P. That's right. Paul George gave himself this nickname. And this is my truly favorite part. They ask Carmelo Anthony, what did you think of Playoff P?

CARMELO ANTHONY: I thought you guys gave him that name. And I found out this morning he named himself that. So--

[LAUGHTER]

- Not great when the media asked you a thing, and you think, oh these nerds made this up. Favorite part about Carmelo doing this is if you look really closely, right here, like if you zoom in just a little bit on his eyes, right there, you can just see him wanting so badly to roll his eyes at how stupid a nickname it is.

But what would happen to Playoff P the next year? Oh. You forgot? Damian Lillard did this to him.

- Lillard, long range 3. And it's good!

- For the most part, the people probably would have left Paul George alone. But instead, he just kicked the hornet's nest by saying this about Damian Lillard. And then Damian Lillard went and dropped, God 50, 45, 50, in rebuttal to Paul George, who in this playoff series, Pandemic P, the man averaging oh, what does this say? 15 points a game, 22% from 3, and getting lit up by some of the best memes on the internet.

There's this one. And there's this one. Oh, this one's pretty good. And this one's very mean, but also pretty good. So I guess the lesson here is just don't give yourself a nickname.