Former Pacers player thinks he deserves his jersey retired by Indiana

Reggie Miller. Slick Leonard. George McGinnis. Roger Brown. Slick Leonard. Those are the five names that hang in the rafters in Indiana. Those people were Indiana Pacers legends when they were on the court. Slick helped save the franchise in Indiana and was a great coach too.

All of those players were incredible. Of those players, only Miller played for a Pacers team that was in the NBA the entire time. All of the other guys played in the ABA, where the Pacers were a powerhouse. They won multiple titles in that league before merging with the NBA.

Having your number retired is the ultimate honor. It's reserved for only the all-time greats who wear that team's uniform. A former Pacers player believes that he's done enough to get honored by Indiana and have his jersey hanging from the rafters of Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Paul George thinks the Indiana Pacers should retire his number

Speaking on his podcast Podcast P, George stated that he believes that the Pacers should honor him by putting his jersey up there with every other great Indiana player. He also joked that he could become the first player to be booed at his own jersey retirement ceremony.

Quite frankly, this is ridiculous. George does not deserve his jersey retired in Indiana. While he was a very good player, he's not an elite all-time great. He was a four-time All-Star, a two-time Third-team All-NBA player, and he won the Most Improved Award while he was in Indiana. Those are great accolades.

Yet, George asked out of Indiana. He wanted to be traded. Why would the organization honor him when he wanted to leave them high and dry? That's another thing that George claims never happened. He claims he was surprised when Kevin Pritchard traded him.

George was the one who told him that he wasn't going to re-sign the following year. He basically gave Pritchard a heads-up to trade him in order to get something for him. That's exactly what Indiana did. They got Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis in exchange for him and later flipped Sabonis for Tyrese Haliburton.

It's very clear that George would never come back to play for Indiana. It should be clear to him that they would never retire his number. He also seems to think the Clippers should retire his number at some point, despite never making the Finals with them either.

It will be interesting to see where George ends up in free agency.