The sound of hearts breaking in Los Angeles a couple of months ago when Paul George committed to the Indiana Pacers for five more years could be heard from Pacoima to the South Bay.

George being a local kid from Knight High in Palmdale and the NBA’s newest breakout star, it wasn’t so much an assumption as it was a given he would eventually work his way back home as a free agent, most logically with the Lakers, who were headed toward payroll nirvana once the contracts of Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant fell off the books.

Armed with the means to lure two big-ticket free agents, the Lakers would pluck the 6-foot-7 George out of Indianapolis in 2015 as the next big star they’d build around.

“I heard it all summer,” George remembers. “I live out here during the summer and everywhere I went people thought I was looking for a house out here to come here and get picked up as a free agent.”

It made too much sense, the Lakers with a serious need and sufficient money and George supposedly motivated to leave cold, lonely Indianapolis for the bright lights of Los Angeles.

And George isn’t going to lie; it felt good that fans held him in such high esteem.

“It was great for them to think I was the guy to come in and keep a franchise going,” said George, who, truth be told, grew up a Clippers fan although his favorite player was Bryant.

In retrospect, though, it was a major reach, not only ignoring the pull of a guaranteed $80 million dollars but also the reality of where these two franchises currently stand.

“He wants to win a championship,” Indiana coach Frank Vogel said Sunday before his Pacers played the Clippers at Staples Center.

Translation: Why would anyone turn their back on of all that money and the opportunity to play with the young, immensely talented Pacers?

Even if it is to return home to play for one of the most storied franchises in the NBA.

“I think that’s very indicative of where we are as a franchise,” Vogel said.

More than anything it didn’t take into account just how loyal George is, or how difficult it would have been to walk away from a team that’s developed into one of the best in the NBA.

With George now the centerpiece, the long, athletic Pacers have burst out to an NBA-best 16-1 record just a few months after pushing the Miami Heat to an epic seven-game series in the Eastern Conference finals.

To abandon everything the Pacers built, potentially just one step removed from the ultimate payoff, well, that just isn’t what George is all about.

“How far we went last year, the core we had. It would have been a selfish move to come to L.A.” George said. “We went to the conference finals and we’re going to have the same guys here for years to come. And that’s what it’s all about. Growing with these guys, continue to get better with these guys, and see what happens here.”

More and more, it’s looking like he made a prudent move.

The 23-year-old George helped elevate the Pacers a year ago by averaging a career-high 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists while winning the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.

His development, more than anything else, is the key to the Pacers’ re-birth as an NBA power. For years they were an emerging team, the one missing component an All-Star caliber go-to player that could carry them.

That is the role George grew into last season, and he’s only gotten better this year while pushing his scoring average to 23.6 points per game and the Pacers to the best record in the NBA.

“The old-school thought on Indiana was they were a very good basketball team but they didn’t have an outlier. They didn’t have that one guy that could take a game over,” said Clippers coach Doc Rivers. “They’ve always been a really good basketball team. They play together. They’re over themselves, which is amazing because they’re young. They understand it’s about the team wins and you can see it in their play. But they still didn’t have that one guy, and now they do, and that’s what makes them so good.”

As if on cue, George went out and dropped 27 points, six rebounds and five assists on the Clippers in a 105-100 victory to start a five-game road trip.

“Can you win Most Improved and Most Valuable Player?” joked Rivers. “Can it be done? He won’t win Most Improved because he’s already won it before. But to me, the jump that he’s made from last year to this year — and last year he was good — (makes him) the most improved player in the game.”

Which is remarkable considering the giant leaps George has made over the last two seasons, and how easy it would have been to contently accept last season as his ceiling after earning the huge payday.

On the other hand, that would be a complete contradiction of everything George stands for.

“That’s not in his DNA. This kid is driven,” Vogel said. “We talked right after the season last year and my message to him, going into the summer, was to recognize that he’s not only — everyone’s going to talk about his length and his athleticism and physical talent, but to me his best natural gift is his drive.

“His personal hunger to get better, to be a team guy, to do everything that’s going to help elevate his teammates and the Pacers culture and environment. He’s extremely driven to improve and get better.”

And apparently, remain loyal to a team and city that gave him the room and opportunity to develop into one of the best young players in the game.

Even if it did mean surrendering a chance to come home to Los Angeles and play for the Lakers.