Indy store gives away Paul George merchandise after reports he’s leaving Pacers
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A superstar with the Indiana Pacers could be leaving the team to become a free agent next summer, according to Yahoo Sports.
Yahoo Sports said No.13, Paul George, is hoping to head home to California to play for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Some fans are hoping for Paul George to stay, while others said they had a feeling this day would come.
A T-shirt store in Broad Ripple wasted no time getting rid of their Paul George merchandise after learning about the reports. It started with a picture shared by the company on Instagram on Sunday.
“We had a lot of people that didn’t believe that they were actually for free online,” said Hillary Brown, general manager of The Shop Indy. “They were like ‘Yeah, it’s free, yeah, sure, okay.’”
The Shop Indy decided to give away what’s left of their Paul George merchandise for free online and in-store.
“We had a few shirts and snap-back hats that say ‘PG 13’ on them left over from this year’s basketball season, and we just figured that once he left that nobody would be buying the shirts anymore,” she said.
Brown said the store has been open for about two years.
“In store we had four T-shirts left and four of the snap-back hats left, and those sold out within a half-hour once we put them out for free,” she said. “Our online stock, I’m not sure exactly how much we had left, but those sold out within two hours.”
She said one of the owners came up with the idea, and they’s done something similar in the past.
“We had a shirt that said ‘Born Ready’ for Lance Stephenson, so when he left the first time, we did the same thing — we gave them away for free until supplies ran out,” she explained.
But fans like Kyle Wearren are hoping for the best. He talked to 24-Hour News 8 while playing basketball at Fall Creek.
“Most athletes don’t come back that good from an injury,” he said about Paul George. “He’s been phenomenal since then.”
Wearren knows a thing or two about basketball. He’s 6 feet 8 inches tall and used to play basketball in high school. Despite the reports, he’s hoping Paul George will stay with the Pacers.
“It’s like you lose a little hope, but you know there’s a lot of other athletes out there, but when you build with someone, it’s just different.”
According to reports, Paul George plans to play out the 2017-2018 season with the Pacers.
24-Hour News 8 should learn more about the possible move this week with the NBA draft on Thursday.