With more cheers than boos during All-Star game, Paul George hopes Pacers fans have moved on

INDIANAPOLIS – In the more than six years since his lukewarm commitment to remain an Indiana Pacer at a celebrity softball game, the trade request that followed shortly after, the boos and back-and-forth blame game he’s participated in with his first NBA home’s front office, Paul George is ready to move on.

Really. Sincerely. (Or so he says.)

And a greeting during introductions ahead of Sunday night’s NBA All-Star Game – albeit from a far more national than normal crowd for Gainbridge Fieldhouse – that featured a heavy dose of cheers, rather than boos, may have made the difference.

In the years since George asked for, and was quickly granted, a trade from the team that drafted him in 2010, he has, at times almost asked for the jeers and derogatory chants Pacers fans have happily greeted him with during his visits.

And as has been typical for the emotional George in his complicated relationship with the Pacers front office and fans, he’s said those boos provide the nine-time All-Star additional “incentives”, “energy” and “aggression” while playing in front of his former home crowd – only to then denounce them, calling them “a Hoosier thing.”

Simply, it’s never been easy to dissect just where both sides were in this messy breakup, where George has given interviews and gone on podcasts and oscillated between being thankful and leveling jabs and frustration about the team he said refused to make a strong push to trade for Anthony Davis – leading to George informing his agent and the Pacers he planned to walk in the summer of 2018 as a free agent.

Perhaps overly hopeful, given the makeup of the crowd and George’s relatively small role he played in the Western Conference All-Star’s blowout loss (211-186) in Sunday’s All-Star Game – George finished with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting in just 10 minutes of action – the Los Angeles Clippers forward hopes the clear cheers he received Sunday night are a sign both sides can leave their pasts … well, in the past.

“Hopefully (the cheers) boil over, and we can both respect the time we had together and the relationship we had together,” George told IndyStar after the All-Star game. “I hold no grudges, and hopefully that was their closing of a chapter.”

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In reflecting on his 48 hours back in the city he once hoped to take to an NBA Finals, easily on the biggest stage in Indianapolis since his old teams’ deep playoff runs, George said he particularly cherished the small, private moments away from the cameras and recorders, one-on-one moments with fans and old teammates, where he could focus on the good of what he achieved as a Pacer.

“I think being out yesterday in the city and around people that can touch me and share their stories about while I was here, it just meant a lot,” he said. “I think those interactions helped me feel better and understand that, I think, people have gotten over the bad times.

“There’s a lot of kids that looked up to me during that seven-year stretch when I was here, and it meant a lot to them, and they thanked me for my time here, which I was extremely appreciative of. I missed the time I was here. It was great basketball with a great group that I played with. I wish we could’ve bottled that time and stretched it out even more.”

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And yet, there it is – that hint of regret, sadness and unhappiness with how George left things. Somehow, his reflections always seem to circle back to unfinished business and the teams who fought so hard, but could never break through and dethrone LeBron James’ Miami Heat.

Time will only continue to heal those scars, but if Sunday’s crowd is to be believed, it’s already well on its way for Indiana fans. Perhaps once next season rolls around, the rose-colored glasses of All-Star weekend will have worn off, and George will again become ‘Public Enemy No. 1’ when he steps onto the hardwood between Pennsylvania Avenue and Delaware Street.

But maybe, just maybe, Sunday was evidence of a time where George can be trotted out to a jam-packed Gainbridge Fieldhouse and be cherished as one of the team’s all-time greats, similar to the roll-call of former Pacers All-Stars during Sunday’s contest who received some of the most energetic cheers of the night.

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Until then, George, perhaps with half a foot stuck in the past, wants Pacers fans to remember one thing.

“If only they knew I was trying to make the team as good as I could, and that didn’t happen, so I felt it was my time to go,” he said Sunday. “If only they knew I was fighting for them. Moreso than wanting to leave them stranded. I enjoyed my time here, and it’s good that both sides can dust our hands and walk smoothly away.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: NBA All-Star Game: Paul George appreciates cheers from Pacers fans