Indiana Pacers: 30 greatest players in franchise history

4. George McGinnis

The only other player besides “The Dunking Dutchman” and “The Rifleman” to be able to contend for “Best Nickname” for the Indiana Pacers would be George McGinnis. He held titles such as “Big Mac,” “Baby Bull,” “Big George,” and “McGinnis the Magnificent.” For a player to have this many nicknames, he better have the actual skills to back them up, and George McGinnis did.

To go along with all the nicknames, McGinnis earned plenty of other titles with the Pacers as well, including 3 time All-Star, 2 time ABA champ, 3 time All-ABA, ABA MVP, All-Rookie, All-Time All-ABA, and Hall of Famer. Sheesh.

To earn this many accolades and honors, George McGinnis put up some truly insane numbers. He was the ABA’s leading scorer in 1974-1975 with a monstrous 29.8 points per game. In his three best ABA seasons with the Pacers, McGinnis scored 25.9 points or more.

But it wasn’t just scoring. McGinnis was also a rebounding machine at his 6-foot-8 stature. In his best rebounding season for the Pacers, he logged an insane 15 boards per game. Over his career, he averaged double-digit rebounds 7 different times.

After the NBA/ABA merger, McGinnis took his talents to a couple of other teams before returning to Indiana to retire as a Pacer in 1982.