Clay Maxfield’s Indiana Pacers All-Decade Team

Paul George

Regardless of his departure, Paul George will forever be revered as one of the greatest Pacers of the decade.

Drafted out of Fresno State in 2010, George showed a slow but steady development into one of the game’s best two-way players.

During his time in Indiana, George emerged as one of the league’s most captivating players throughout the decade.

Averaging nearly 17 PPG throughout his tenure with the Pacers, George hit the second-highest average of his career in 2016 when he put up an all-star season that was built around 23.7 PPG followed by 6.6 rebounds per game while shooting nearly 90% from the free-throw line.

George won over the hearts of Indiana fans when he came back from a leg injury sustained in the summer of 2014 with Team USA by averaging 23 PPG while aiding the Pacers to a 45-37 season that ended in a first-round exit by the hands of the Toronto Raptors in seven games.

Setting aside how his time in Indiana may have ended, there is no denying the loyalty that Pacer fans have for those that called Bankers Life Fieldhouse home.

Even today, there are a multitude of George jerseys spotted throughout the Fieldhouse and the memory of George’s dunk over Miami Heat’s, Chris Andersen in the 2013 NBA Eastern Conference Finals is one of the most admired plays of the Pacers’ last decade.

The battles with LeBron James and the Heat that lasted from 2011 to 2014 stood as one of the league’s most stifling rivalries.

George’s ability to go toe-to-toe with the Big Three of South Beach helped the Pacers turn the corner when Indiana hadn’t sniffed the postseason in four of their previous five seasons before PG’s arrival.

George had great memories as a Pacer and will forever be remembered as one of the best the organization has ever had.