Paul George revealed some interesting news on why he requested a trade from the Indiana Pacers in 2017. On an podcast appearance called “Knuckleheads” with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles, George revealed he wanted out of Indiana when the Pacers organization told him that they would not move pieces to acquire “The Best PF in the Game” to team up with George in Indiana. The Pacers told George, they could not to do the deal because the team was a small market.
The player was rumored to possibly be Anthony Davis or Blake Griffin, but that still remains unnamed. After growing frustration with the team, George told the Pacers he would not be re-signing in 2018.
The Pacers ended up trading Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder that offseason in exchange for Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo.
My Thoughts
I don’t know if this is exactly 100% true, but it is very interesting to hear.
The Pacers were coming off a first round sweep by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2017, and I knew that after that sweep, things would look a lot different in Indiana..
My guess is that the guy who Paul George was talking about was Blake Griffin. He was a free agent at the time, and it just sounded like they weren’t willing to sign Griffin because of how much he was worth that off-season. Anthony Davis was on the Pelicans and did not have any issues with playing in New Orleans at the time in 2017. I think Blake Griffin was looking to get off the Los Angeles Clippers after all the drama going on. But once Chris Paul was gone, and the Clippers offered him the big contract, he decided to stay in the bright lights of LA.
Regardless of how things turned out, I think Paul George was going to leave Indiana at some point. He wanted to be in LA and play for the Los Angeles Lakers. It is near where he grew up, and I think he at some point wanted to play in the big lights in Los Angeles.
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