If Paul George would’ve stayed with the Pacers, he could’ve been a Hall of Famer

Yes, you read the title of this article correctly. Paul Clifton Anthony George could’ve been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts if he stayed with the team that drafted him back in 2010, the Indiana Pacers. Why am I telling you this now? Well, I’ve had this on my mind for a long time and, so far, George’s career has been unlike any other. He’s had great success along with a low so tragic that only football players like Joe Theismann, Alex Smith and Dak Prescott can relate too. And, still after, the road of rebuilding his reputation in the NBA seems to be never-ending. But, what if that tragic low was erased from history?

Once he got drafted, the Pacers were basically thrown into the playoff mix in 2011, with the likes of Danny Granger, Darren Collison, and Roy Hibbert. Even though they got knocked out in the first round in 5 games by the Chicago Bulls, they showed potential to be a sneaky team to watch out for in the Eastern Conference. And within the next 3 seasons, they lived to that hype and then some. But it wasn’t the team that improved, Paul George did as well. In 2012, George averaged solid numbers for a 2nd year player (12.1 points per game; shot 44% from the field and 38.5% from the 3 point line). They got past the 1st round only to get beaten by the revengeful champion Miami Heat in the next round. Although George wasn’t really a key ingredient in that run, both George and the Pacers time were about to put the NBA world on notice. And in 2013, they did just that.

When the playoffs came, they blew NBA fans’ minds and showed why this Pacers squad would have a chance to win a title. They eliminated an Atlanta Hawks team that was probably just as exciting as Indiana was, with Al Horford, Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver leading the way. However, the Pacers proved to be just a little more established. George, with his already abundant playoff experience, dropped 20 or more points in 4 out of the 6 games played. In the 2nd round, they would face the 2nd-seed New York Knicks. They seemed to be evenly matched with the Pacers. They had a prime Carmelo Anthony who was playing his best basketball yet with the Knickerbockers. They had Tyson Chandler, who had just come off of winning Defensive Player of the Year the year before. Finally, they had J.R Smith, who that season won Sixth Man of the Year. Along with those key players, they had a mix of old and young all over that roster. You would think that mixture of experienced veterans and fiery young players just scratching the surface could be championship material right? Nope. The Pacers beat the Knicks in 6 games as well. George had posted double digits in the points column in all of those games. But, who did they face in the Eastern Conference Finals? The Miami Heat. We all know who was on that roster, but if you don’t, let me give it to you in few words. A prime LeBron James (scary). A prime Dwayne Wade (scary). A prime Chris Bosh (scary). An absolutely loaded cast of role players including a 37 year old Ray Allen, Chris Andersen also known as “The Birdman”, Mike Miller and Mario Chalmers (also scary). You would think that the Heat would sweep a team like the Pacers right? Not at all. In fact, this series went to 7 games. Yeah, you read that right. 7 games! The Heat would eventually win that series, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that, in my opinion, this series were the hardest playoff series that the famous Heat super team had to deal with during their 4-season tenure. I was watching some highlight tape from that series and, besides the occasional blowout here and there, it was back and forth the entire way. Players were diving on the floor and making huge plays on offense and defense that would dictate the rest of the series. One of the key players trying to help the Pacers make a run for the Heat’s money was George. He averaged 19.4 points per game, 6 rebounds a game, and 5.1 assists per game while shooting 47.5% from the field, just over 44% from the 3-point line and just over 77% from the charity stripe. In 2014, they would make it to the Conference Finals yet again. And who was the matchup? The Heat yet again. That edition went a little bit differently as the series went to 6 games and the Heat dominated throughout.

In July of 2014 during a USA scrimmage in Las Vegas, George was sprinting on a fast break going stride-for-stride with James Harden trying to get a chase down block. He would fail to do so and as George comes down, his leg gets caught underneath the basket and moves at a 90 degree angle, severely injuring his leg. According to an article from Weiss Orthopaedics, it would eventually be diagnosed as a compound fracture in his right leg and would be sidelined for 8 months. After he got back on the court, he just wasn’t the same. So, the Pacers would trade him to the Oklahoma City Thunder to team up with a superstar in Russell Westbrook and potentially win a championship. But, Portland Trailblazers point guard Damian Lillard’s season-ending buzzer-beater in 2019 shut that proposal down quicker than a lightbulb goes out. Then, he got traded to the Los Angeles Clippers to team up with another superstar in Kawhi Leonard to not just win the battle of LA, but also to win a championship and so far that hasn’t happened either.

So, let’s rewind again back to that potential chase down block again. What if George hadn’t gone up for the block? It was just a scrimmage, so I don’t understand why he was running so fast to try to block the shot. What if George wasn’t injured at all during the summer of 2014 and comes back healthy for the 2014-15 regular season? Would his score-first mentality finally lead the Pacers to their 1st world championship as an NBA organization? Would that team have exorcised the playoff demons of the Michael Jordan era, the Malice at the Palace and the Heat super team era? After that 2014-15 season, how many more championships could Paul George have won with the team? How many MVPs? How many Finals MVPs? Would his All-Star appearances have doubled? Could he have stayed with the team for his entire career, like Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe Bryant did? When he would retire, would he have been a Hall of Famer? I would never be able to answer all of the questions. Well, except for the last one. And the answer to that would have to be…………yes.