Paul George is a guy that worked too hard to get here to just roll over. He was overlooked coming out of high school in Palmdale, undervalued coming out of college at Fresno State, and now he’s an All-Star NBA player. He got there with some natural gifts and an impressive work ethic to hone those skills every offseason, then to play hard every night.
That’s not the kind of guy to let an injury stop him.
George met with the media in Indianapolis for the first time since his horrific injury breaking his tibia and fibula in a USA Basketball exhibition game in Las Vegas. All he talked about was coming back. Here are some highlights, via Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports and Michael Lee of the Washington Post.
USA Basketball came under a lot of criticism in the wake of the injury — from where the stanchions were placed to the demands on players time — but George was having none of it.
Meaning he wants to be on Team USA in 2016 when the plane heads to Rio for the Olympics.
As for talking about the injury itself:
I’d be shocked if we saw George back on the court next season. Aside the basic healing timeline, even if he pushed to get back for the end of the season this is not going to be a Pacers’ season he wants to rejoin. They are in for a tough year.
But when he comes back in the fall of 2015, watch out.