Paul George Fantasy News and Statistics

The pride of Palmdale, CA, George is one of many NBA players from the Los Angeles area who idolized Kobe Bryant growing up. But unlike Bryant, who was the National High School Player of the Year, George didn’t make a name for himself until joining the Indiana Pacers. And even in the NBA he wasn’t an instant success. He progressed from a role player to a superstar with Indiana and will begin the next phase of his career with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The three colleges that George verbally committed to tells you all about the offers he had coming out of high school. He initially pledged to Santa Clara because it was the first school to offer him a scholarship, and he was unsure if he would get another offer. He then de-committed and pledged to Pepperdine because his sister played basketball there. But after the basketball coach resigned from the Waves, George again de-committed and finally landed at Fresno State. The Bulldogs weren’t known for their basketball program, and their most notable NBA player was former streetball legend Rafer Alston. That would change after two seasons, though, as George elevated the profile of both himself and the school before heading to the NBA.

The No. 10 pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, George joined a Pacers squad that had missed the playoffs in four straight years. That postseason drought ended in his rookie season even though he spent most of it coming off the bench. He became Indiana’s starting shooting guard in his second season but played the role of defensive stopper rather than being one of the team’s primary scoring options.

It took a season-long injury to Pacers leading scorer Danny Granger for George to take the reins of Indiana’s offense in the 2012-13 season. With Granger out, George also took to his natural position of small forward, leading Indiana with 17.4 points per game and making his first All-Star team en route to the Eastern Conference Finals. The following season followed a similar script, but George was also lauded for his defensive efforts and was named to the All-Defensive first team.

George’s career would be altered forever during the summer of 2014 while he was practicing with Team USA for the FIBA World Cup. During a televised scrimmage, he landed awkwardly at the base of a basket stanchion and suffered a compound fracture of both his fibula and tibia in his right leg. The injury ended George’s quest to win a gold medal at the World Cup and kept him out of the first 76 games of the 2014-15 NBA season.

After a lengthy rehab, George returned for the final six games of that year and suited up for all but one game of the 2015-16 season. Even though the Pacers team wasn’t the same as the one that went to back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals, George was even better than he was pre-injury. He established a new career-high in points per game and made his third All-Star team after a year’s absence.

In his final season in a Pacers uniform, George improved his scoring average for a fifth straight year. But another first-round playoff loss forced him to start thinking about life outside of Indiana. The Pacers were aware that George could potentially leave after the 2017-18 season, so they decided to trade him and get something in return before he bolted for nothing. Thus, George was shipped to Oklahoma City, where he will be paired with last year’s MVP—and another Los Angeles native—Russell Westbrook. With George likely to opt out of his contract following the 2017-18 season, this could be his only year in OKC as he’s made no secret about his desire to play for his hometown Los Angeles Lakers.