The Oklahoma City Thunder will take on the Los Angeles Lakers for the first time this season tonight and it could well see Paul George coming up against his future employers.The small forward informed the Indiana Pacers in the summer that he would not be re-signing with the franchise when his contract expires at the end of this campaign.He's believed to have stated his desire to join his hometown team in L.A. and wanted them to grant him a trade to the Lakers.Instead, the Pacers agreed a deal to send him to the Thunder in exchange for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.Many people view his move to OKC as purely a rental as he's expected to join Los Angeles in the summer as a free agent.Speaking ahead of the showdown at Staples Center, George addressed the fact that his preference to sign with the Lakers became public in the offseason and says he has no regrets.“I have no regrets at all,” George said, per Moke Hamilton of OKC Thunder Wire. “All was said was a destination I would have loved to go to. There wasn’t a gunpoint to the head ‘send me here,’ I just stated somewhere I wanted to go play.

"If you ask 80, 70 percent of the guys in the league if they would have loved 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.”

The Lakers are also extremely keen to snap up the 27-year-old and were a little too vocal about it in the summer as they were fined $500,000 by the NBA for tampering.

PG13 has been up front and honest with the media and also made his intentions clear to Indiana in order for them to receive some assets in return for him instead of seeing him walk for nothing.

But on multiple occasions already this year, George has claimed that his mind is not made up and has not ruled out re-signing with the Thunder.

His decision is likely to depend on how OKC ends the season and how far they can go in the playoffs.

It's clear that the All-NBA forward still has an interest in donning the Purple and Gold jersey which would make it difficult for Thunder general manager Sam Presti to trade him before the deadline if he wanted to.

There's still so much of the season to go, however, and only the performances of the team can convince him to commit his long-term future to Oklahoma City.

His latest comments will only intensify the rumors linking him with the Lakers and it's something OKC will just have to accept for the rest of the year.