Indiana Pacers: 30 greatest players in franchise history

25. George Hill

George “The Hometown Hero” Hill was born in Indianapolis, went to Broad Ripple High School on the north side, and stuck around the city when he went to college at IUPUI. Drafted by the San Antonio Spurs, Hill spent his first three seasons learning from Gregg Popovich before coming over to the Indiana Pacers in the now infamous trade that allowed the Spurs to draft Kawhi Leonard.

While some are still bitter to this day about this aforementioned trade, there’s no denying that George Hill was an incredibly important piece of the puzzle for the Pacers during the Paul George, Lance Stephenson, Roy Hibbert, and David West days. Hill stuck around Indy for 5 years, during which the team saw a great deal of success.

The Pacers’ two Eastern Conference Finals appearances in 2013 and 2014 were achieved in large part thanks to Hill’s leadership, solid play on offense, and above-average defense on the other end of the court. Hill was a very good shooter, putting the ball in the hoop from 3-point range from about 36 percent to 41 percent each of his 5 years with the team.

Hill caught some flack from fans for not always being as aggressive as they wanted him to be, and some felt like he was more of a shooting guard in a point guard’s body, but few players have been as consistent and important to the Indiana Pacers as George Hill was during his time here.