Those rumors surrounding Paul George possibly joining the Lakers this offseason will not die down, and George isn't hiding from them.
Ahead of the Thunder's back-to-back set against the Lakers and Clippers on Wednesday and Thursday, the Oklahoma City forward took questions from the media regarding the constant reports and speculation about George (presumably) opting out of the last year of his contract this summer and signing with LA. While George realizes those stories won't disappear, he says that's "not my focus" and made it clear his main priority is winning with his current team.
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Looking back, George says he has "no regrets at all" that his desire to play for the Lakers became public. It was reported last June that George had his agent tell Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard he planned to become a free agent in 2018 and would leave Indiana, preferably for LA. That put the Pacers in a tough position and forced them to quickly find trade suitors. Pritchard ultimately sent George to the Thunder in exchange for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, a deal that was roundly criticized at the time.
"All that was said was that (was) a destination I would love to go to," George said. "There wasn't, you know, a 'Hey, gunpoint to the head, send me here.' I just stated somewhere that I wanted to go play. You ask 80, 70 percent of the guys in the league if they would love to go back home and play for their city, play for their home, that's all I stated.
"I would have loved to go back home and play for my city. So, no regrets at all. No regrets at all. I thought this trade that went down was a win-win for both sides."
George has since found "closure" with both the Pacers and Thunder in position to make the playoffs in their respective conferences. After a rough 8-12 start out of the gate, OKC has found success as of late, rattling off a 12-5 run through December to shoot up to the No. 5 seed in the West behind the Warriors, Rockets, Spurs and Timberwolves.
Despite finding chemistry with Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony, George understands how quickly things can change in the NBA ecosystem. He once imagined staying with the Pacers alongside George Hill, Lance Stephenson, David West and Roy Hibbert, but that core group fell apart after failing to take down LeBron James and advance to the NBA Finals.
"It comes down to just being grateful and happy where you're at. You just never know," George said. "I've been on a team in Indiana where I thought we'd be together for my whole career. You never know. You've got to be grateful and live in the moment, and that moment for me is starting again with this group. Being out there with Melo, with Russ, the talent that we have — again, you're in that moment. You're living in that moment.
"It's crazy to think where we can get to the more we build. We've only been together for a couple months. You've got to think of the bigger picture when it comes to a situation like this."
You can hear everything George had to say at Tuesday's practice in the video below (courtesy of The Norman Transcript's Fred Katz).
