The Indiana Pacers suffered a major loss with the series leg injury to Paul George on Friday night while playing for USA Basketball and now the team likely will not trade Roy Hibbert, as they have lost a major star and now must survive in the central division against the Cavs and Chicago Bulls and that could be very difficult after the fracture to George's leg.
The injury was stunning and shocking on Friday night and it reminded many of what happened to Louisville player Kevin Ware a couple years ago and now George likely will miss the season. According to ESPN.com, George had successful surgery on the leg and will remain in the hospital until at least Monday and he could be out for as long as a year, but there is a chance he could return before that. Brian Windhorst writes that the doctor who did the surgery gave George a good prognosis since the break was only on the bone and did not include tissue damage.
George is known for his physical fitness and over the past two years he has been more concentrated on his nutrition and doctors say that could help with his recovery as well. While everyone had their thoughts with George immediately after what happened, now the thoughts are to what will happen with the Pacers this season and after they made it to the east finals for the second straight year, this is a major blow.
George recently signed a five year extension worth over $90 million dollars and now he will be out for at least the season for the Pacers and the team will have to find a way to recover. The team signed Rodney Stuckey in the offseason and lost Lance Stephenson to the Hornets and now their best player has a major injury to overcome. Ware's injury kept him out for a year and he has not yet fully recovered and George now has a long road ahead, but all reports so far are positive based on the significance of the damage and the way George has responded so far.
George has released some pictures on Twitter and sent out messages on social media and appears to be doing well mentally about the injury. George is a budding superstar in the league and some have compared his talents to LeBron James on a slightly lesser scale and now this could be a major shift in the trajectory of his career. Derrick Rose has taken two years to get back and he has not yet played a season since being hurt and now George will have to find a way to recover as well.
"What I've learned through this process is that it's not ]career-ending]," Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard told the Indianapolis Star on Saturday.
