At the end of a long NBA Draft night that ended with the Indiana Pacers adding former Broad Ripple High and IUPUI player, George Hill, Larry Bird discussed his motives with the media.
Here are some general comments on what he had to say, not direct quotes.
- We are very excited to have him (Hill) as part of our team. He's got playoff experience and we look forward to him being part of our core group going forward.
- We've been after him for a while but San Antonio hasn't been interested. Then when they saw how the draft fell they decided to make the trade.
- We have a lot of young guys and now it is time to fill in the holes, hopefully through free agency we can fill some more.
- I don't know where he's going to play, he'll play the one and two. He won't interfere with the minutes for Darren Collison.
- Helps that he's local but he's a good NBA player and didn't trade for him because he's from Indianapolis.
- Few players we thought might drop to us but when George Hill was available we focused on getting him.
- This was our deal, we would take him over about any other player in the draft, especially what was left.
- Shouldn't impact Lance Stephenson or Paul George. Hill can play with Lance or with George.
- Can't talk about the lockout, all I want to talk about is I'm tired and I want to go to bed.
Me too.
Here's a quote from George Hill: "It's tough, but at the same time, things happen for a reason. My hat is off to San Antonio for the opportunity I had here and I'm really looking forward to coming home to Indiana and helping the Pacers win games."