I haven't watched any Pacers games aside from the second time they beat the Celtics, but according to BBRef he's played the 3 and the 4 almost exactly 50% of the time each. I also don't think people necessarily forgot about him, but the wheels very abruptly fell off the Pacers hype train starting with Roy Hibbert's legendary playoff series against the Hawks two years ago and continuing through Stephenson leaving, George getting hurt, and the team sucking last year. So it will take a while for people to start paying close attention but it was clear from the time he got injured that those kinds of clean breaks actually bode pretty well for long-term recovery and he's been showing that pretty loudly this year. I also was shocked to learn that he is still only 25.
As for Kobe: What he is doing right now is nothing short of performance art at the sole expense of the Los Angeles Lakers. It's not often we get to witness a man who has built up the cachet in an organization as to become completely untouchable both on and off the basketball court, and even rarer that the man develops such a righteous mix of grumpiness, antagonism, and suckitude that he sinks the entire ship by himself. It's beautiful and we should all be watching in awe.