Paul George Flips Off 76ers Fan Who Dropped the Ball 'As If I'm a Dog'

Paul George torched his old team and then flipped off one of its fans, and he is not apologising for either part. The Boston Celtics forward scored 36 points in a 123-101 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, his first game back in Philadelphia since the offseason trade that sent him to Boston, and late in the game he answered a courtside fan’s disrespect with a middle finger. Asked about it afterwards, he explained exactly what the fan did, and why the gesture followed.

What did Paul George do?

He flipped off a courtside fan after hitting a three-pointer. The ball rolled to the fan, who dropped it on the floor at George’s feet instead of passing it back to him, and George responded with the gesture as play continued. Reporter Noa Dalzell’s footage of the moment gained more than 900,000 views, and she asked George about it after the game. It was the second viral moment of a night that already had one, after Jaylen Brown barely acknowledged Jayson Tatum’s pregame greeting before the same game.

What did George say happened?

He said the fan did it on purpose. “There was a fan being an a—hole, ball rolled to him. He looked me dead in my eyes, dropped the ball on the ground as if I’m a dog to go fetch or go get it, instead of passing the ball to me like a normal fan would do. And so, yeah, so then I rolled him a middle finger in return,” George said. He told Dalzell the fan had deliberately made things difficult, and that he took the dropped ball as a deliberate attempt to disrespect him. The explanation does not excuse the gesture, and George did not present it as one. It is his version of a provocation, offered in full, on the record.

How good was George’s return to Philadelphia?

His best game as a Celtic, and nearly his best game in two years. George finished with 36 points on 14-of-22 shooting, including six three-pointers, with five rebounds and a plus-17 rating in 30 minutes. He had 22 points when the incident happened and added 14 in the fourth quarter as Boston pulled away. The 36 points would have been his second-best scoring game of his entire run in Philadelphia, behind only a 39-point night against Washington last April. His two years with the 76ers were generally regarded as a disappointment: he played only 78 games after signing a four-year, $212 million deal in the summer of 2024, missed long stretches through injury, and was suspended for 25 games in January for violating the NBA’s anti-drug program. In Boston he has found the role he wanted, saying he is a little bit better with more usage, and that in Philadelphia he was not healthy enough to take on the workload he feels he is at his best with. He has averaged 24 points over the last four games of Boston’s winning streak.

Could George be fined for the gesture?

Possibly, but nothing has been announced. The league has rules against obscene gestures and inappropriate language toward spectators, and the precedent is expensive: Anthony Edwards was fined $50,000 during the 2025 playoffs against the Lakers for directing inappropriate language and making an obscene gesture toward a fan. George’s explanation, that he was responding to a provocation, does not necessarily protect him. The league has fined players for less, and it has fined George himself before, though for a different kind of fan incident. A fine for a first offence of this kind tends to land in the tens of thousands, and the league has shown this season it is willing to act on sideline behaviour, even when the sums are small.

Has George been in trouble with fans before?

Yes, once, and he handled that one very differently. In November 2016, while playing for the Indiana Pacers, George lost his composure after a foul call against Jimmy Butler during a game against the Chicago Bulls and kicked the basketball toward the basket stanchion. The ball went into the stands and struck a female spectator in the face. Officials ejected him, George immediately went over to check on her and apologise, and he later sent her flowers. The NBA fined him $15,000. The difference between the two incidents is the difference between an accident and a reply: one was a kick that went wrong, the other was a gesture aimed at a specific person for a specific reason.

What happens next?

The league decides whether the gesture draws a fine, and the Celtics keep rolling at 9-2 and first in the Eastern Conference on a four-game winning streak. George also had a message for the other star of the night, saying his one goal at this point in his career is to win, and that his role is to take pressure off Jayson Tatum and help him become the best player he can be. The Brown homecoming, which the desk covered when Brown watched his return from the locker room, produced the greeting that went viral before tip-off. George produced the one that went viral after it. The 76ers, meanwhile, are left with the same problem LeBron James ran into when he denied the late report about Joel Embiid: a home crowd that watched its old stars walk out with a win.