If Pacers ask, Lance Stephenson says he’s coming back

Dana Benbow | Special to IndyStar

Show Caption Hide Caption Lance Stephenson talks Lakers, loving the Pacers fans Lance Stephenson talks Lakers, loving the Pacers fans

The backdrop was perfect for what Lance Stephenson was about to say.

Indiana Pacers fans milling about at a party Wednesday night, hosted by Stephenson. A party he put on to say thank you to Indianapolis. To say goodbye as he heads off to play with that nemesis-turned-ally LeBron James in glitzy L.A.

Stephenson was in his light pink T-shirt and rose-colored shorts – the color of love. He loves Indy. It’s that first love – he was drafted to the Pacers in 2010, 40th overall pick -- who never quite leaves your heart.

And so, he said Wednesday, if that one-year deal he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers wraps up and Pacers president Kevin Pritchard calls Stephenson up with a plea: We want you back, Lance?

“Oh, of course. This is home. Of course,” Stephenson said at his thank you party inside Incrediplex, a sports and entertainment venue in Indianapolis. “I would always want to come back here.”

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Stephenson, evidently, is long over the comment that Pritchard made when the team let him go last month. During a July news conference to introduce free agent acquisitions Tyreke Evans and Doug McDermott, Pritchard talked about Stephenson.

“We stayed in constant communication with him. At the end of the day, Lance gave us some great years. We love Lance. We love Lance on the court, we love Lance off the court,” Pritchard said. “Sometimes, he was the best player on our team and sometimes he was the best player on the other team.”

Pritchard was making a joke, but the best player on the other team? That stung.

Stephenson fired back on Instagram with a since-deleted post:

“Best player for the other team really that's how u feel about me. I put my heart to this game and also a team player. I do whatever it takes to help my team win not one time I felt like I help the opposite team win. I will always love my pacer fans.”

He had to delete it. He loves Indy. And he wants to come back.

In the meantime, though, he is focusing on his new team in L.A. Critics have come after the Lakers for the Stephenson acquisition saying, at best, he will play a minor role.

Stephenson said Wednesday his role will be to “just play as hard as I can. Whatever happens happens. My goal is to play great this year, help this team win and see what happens after that.”

There has been a bit of a misunderstanding, Stephenson said, on how the whole Lakers request came about. James didn’t personally call him after signing his four-year, $154 million contract with the Lakers over the offseason.

“Magic (Johnson) called me and he told me LeBron was interested, very interested in me,” Stephenson said. As a teammate.

Stephenson told Johnson, “Give me a few hours to make this decision.”

“I decided to go there and, hopefully, we will win a lot of games and have fun,” he said.

He expects all the taunting he did to James through the years – the blowing in the ear, the heckling to draw technical fouls, the bursting into the other team’s huddle – he expects James to ask him to turn that on the Lakers’ opponents.

“Yeah, he’s probably going to sic me on people,” Stephenson said. “It’ll be fun. It will be a very interesting year, just playing with him and winning games with him.”

And yet, he’d be just as thrilled to come back to Indianapolis when it’s all over. If the Pacers will have him.

His best basketball, after all, has always been played with the Pacers. And Stephenson knows why.

“It’s the love and support from the fans,” he said. “When the fans love you and they enjoy whatever you do, it’s a blessing to entertain them and win games for them.”

Follow Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.