BOSTON (AP) — Paul George made one thing clear during his introductory news conference with the Boston Celtics on Tuesday: his ears work just fine.
He’s heard the not-so silent chorus of Celtics fans who bemoaned the front office’s decision to jettison 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown in the July trade with Philadelphia that sent the 36-year-old George to his fifth NBA team.
But George also isn’t shying away from his new situation.
“I understand my circumstances. I understand how huge JB was, not only for the organization, but here in the city. So, I didn’t take it personal,” George said. “To be honest, they should have a relationship, emotionally, to that trade. But my job is to kind of come into a great opportunity for me. Obviously, the last few years have been rough, just with injuries. But for myself, personally, I feel great again. I feel like I’ve turned that corner of dealing with injuries, and now, kind of re-establishing myself from a physical standpoint again. And with that, I can carry it over to the court.”
George, along with acquisitions Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley, Jr. represent president of basketball operations Brad Stevens’ attempt to shore up the roster alongside Jayson Tatum.
The franchise centerpiece, Tatum is embarking on his first full season since tearing his Achilles tendon in May 2025 and then having his return late last season end with him being sidelined for the Celtics’ Game 7 first-round playoff loss to George and the 76ers.
Robinson comes in fresh off winning a championship with the Knicks, and the 38-year-old Conley will be suiting up with his fourth NBA team as he prepares for his 20th NBA season.
Robinson missed Tuesday’s news conference for a personal matter, but Stevens said he’s liked what he’s seen over the past few weeks during workouts between the three newcomers and returning members of Boston’s roster as they prepare to open training camp in two weeks.
The trio also joined Tatum and other current Celtics for informal workouts this summer.
The team held its annual season launch event on Monday and Stevens said there was only one image behind him when he spoke to everyone – a photo of the TD Garden court being refurbished.
“That happens every year right around the end of July. And to me, every single year you go through it looks like the blank canvas of a court being absolutely redone,” Stevens said. “Nobody’s stepped on it. And now it’s that year’s team. To write its own chapter. And I felt that way every time they do it.”
Characterized as a facelift or a complete renovation, the key players of the Celtics teams that hoisted the franchise’s 18th title in 2024 have changed over the summer.
Whether those alterations wind up paying off will depend on what this new trio — and particularly George — can provide at this stage of their careers.
Conley will be a role player behind Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, with Robinson likely backing up starting center Neemias Queta.
But for a player such as George, who has nine All-Star and six All-NBA selections, expectations are higher as he looks to step into the role of Tatum’s tag team partner in the starting lineup.
Conley insisted he’s “still got a lot left” and thinks two things he and George enter on Day 1 with are leadership and instant motivation to produce.
“It’s two guys who haven’t had a chance to win a championship,” Conley said. “So, it’s that sense of urgency that maybe reignites that for the guys who’ve been on this team, who’ve already won it.”
George reiterated several times that a run of injuries he had with the Los Angeles Clippers and Sixers, including knee surgery prior to last season, are in the rearview, and that he is a “great” place physically and mentally.
“It’s a new group, a new opportunity,” George said. “I think they’re getting, someone that’s ready to, not fill the shoes or fill the void of JB, but I think from a personal standpoint myself, I think I can come in and kind of still keep us in that contention. Give us a chance to win.”
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FILE - Minnesota Timberwolves guard Mike Conley reacts during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Nov. 6, 2023, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)
FILE - Philadelphia 76ers forward Paul George (8) drives around Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) during the second half in Game 1 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball game, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted on Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning President Donald Trump's name to the building.
In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building. A federal judge has twice said that can't happen without the approval of Congress.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing," U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling on Tuesday.
The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center's chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he'd given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.
The meeting included testy exchanges at points between Trump and Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has led the campaign to block efforts to memorialize the president at the Kennedy Center. At one point, Beatty referred to Trump as someone who caused “extreme harm,” according to a participant in the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Trump said Beatty was “incompetent” and “holding up everything.”
“You're holding up the whole country,” she responded.
The developments threw into limbo the fate of one of the nation's most prominent cultural institutions, a place where presidents, lawmakers and celebrities of all political ideologies have gathered for decades to recognize and celebrate the best in American arts and culture.
The venue's leaders have argued that the massive building, which began construction in 1965, was in dire need of renovations. A partial ceiling collapse in the building's main hallway earlier this month intensified the calls for renovations.
"The building is not currently built to last, the chairman knows that because he is among the best builders in the world,” Brian Ballard, Kennedy Center board member, said in a statement.
But Trump's insistence on a physical recognition of his work on the building, reminiscent of his tendency to add his name to buildings as a real estate developer, has been a persistent sticking point — alienating many of the institution's longtime supporters and facing repeated legal roadblocks.
The fight over the Kennedy Center marks a rare setback in Trump's second term bid to dramatically remake the nation's capital in his gilded tastes. He's demolished the East Wing of the White House and is replacing it with a ballroom and plans to build a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He's also eyeing a golf course renovation along the Potomac River.
The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe his name on the Kennedy Center's facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also be renamed in Trump’s honor.
Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name once stood.
Hanging over the hearing was the prospect that the administration may seek to demolish the Kennedy Center. In a filing last month, administration lawyers told the court that absent recognition of the president, the Kennedy Center would struggle to raise money for renovations. Without that money, they suggested, the building may need to be demolished, a prospect that alarmed some given Trump’s swift moves last year to dismantle the East Wing.
The Kennedy Center, the lawyers argued, “will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, is seen, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Visitors walk at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
An sculpture of President John F. Kennedy is seen at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as seen from the Washington Monument, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
