Lakers fan pays for 40 billboards outside Los Angeles to recruit Paul George

Los Angeles attorney and Lakers season ticket holder Jacob Emrani is back in the billboard business. After paying for billboards recruiting LeBron James to L.A., Emrani has paid for 40 billboards in hopes of convincing All-Star free agent Paul George to sign with his hometown Lakers this summer, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.

The billboards reportedly have six different designs, including one with both George and James in Lakers uniforms. Here is a picture of one of the designs, as well as a descriptions of a few others.

Emrani explained his motivation for the billboards to Youngmisuk:

“As Lakers fans, we all thought we had Paul George in the bag, and he was 100 percent going to come and in the past few weeks when I heard people saying he might be considering [staying with the Thunder] and having second thoughts, I felt like nobody was really giving attention to Paul George,” Emrani said. “I feel like it is extremely important for Paul George to see this and see how Lakers Nation is so excited about bringing him home.”

”When he went out there last year and said he wanted to play for the Lakers, it was the first ray of hope that we were going back to being a destination where people want to come,” Emrani added. “Now the time has come.”

In an interview with Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times, following the release of his now famous #LABron billboards, Emrani also gave insight into what compelled him to spend thousands of dollars on such a peculiar recruiting mechanism in the first place.

“The whole thing came about after I saw what Philly did, what Cleveland did,” Emrani said. “I was thinking to myself you got these little puny towns that are doing this and we’re L,A where we keep talking about these max contracts … LeBron loves the attention, loves the recruitment. I said let’s put the money behind the passion and recruit him.”

We here at Silver Screen and Roll respect Emrani’s passion, but we would also like to present a few slogan ideas that might work better.

Graphic via Grant Goldberg / Silver Screen and Roll

Graphic via Grant Goldberg / Silver Screen and Roll

Graphic via Grant Goldberg / Silver Screen and Roll

Graphic via Grant Goldberg / Silver Screen and Roll

We’ll get to see if those work, because on Monday, ESPN announced George will be doing a three-part docuseries with SportsCenter titled “Paul George: My Journey” that will debut on Tuesday. The series will follow George as he decides where he will play next season, with the third and final episode airing after his decision has been made public.

The billboards might not be the deciding factor in George choosing the Lakers in free agency, but they certainly don’t hurt what is expected to be a dramatic, scripted pitch (that has already leaked) by the front office in July.

Only a few more days, folks.

You can follow Christian on Twitter @RadRivas.