George looks to put ‘terrible injury’ in past
Strong pre-season play raises hopes that Pacers forward is regaining his all-star form
DeMar DeRozan only refers to it as “devastating.” Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel called it in passing on Wednesday morning “that terrible injury.”
Almost 17 months later, there’s still something of a folk tale mystique to what happened to Paul George, the Indiana Pacers’ all-star and recently anointed position-less forward.
Unlike the 2.7 million YouTube viewers of his compound fracture (that’s just off the first video that shows up in a Google search), George doesn’t cringe when last summer’s horror-show injury is brought up. He sat on the sideline of the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday morning, the bulge of a surgeon’s work at the sock-line of his leg the only remnant of what he has been through. The 25year-old is coming off of a pre-season that has fans around the NBA buzzing that the Pacers’ most talented player is regaining his pre-injury form.
“I hope so,” Vogel said. “I think he looks really good. He’s really moving well, he’s made quite a recovery from that terrible injury and I think the new style of play that we’re looking to play is just going to enhance what he does.”
“I’m very happy for him,” said Raptors forward Luis Scola, who spent the past two seasons with the Pacers. “It was a very sad day when he got hurt, it was a very (graphic) injury. He’s a great kid, so we all felt for him.”
George was coming off of a career year when he landed awkwardly on the stanchion at a USA Basketball scrimmage (where DeRozan was present). He’d averaged 21.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game on a 56-win team that fell in the Eastern Conference final to the Miami Heat.
Rehabbed, he played 15 minutes a night through six games last season with the Pacers.
“I think he was kind of expecting to play a little bit more than he did, but I think the couple of games he ended up playing . . . was a very good thing for him,” Scola said.
“You don’t have to start from scratch after a whole year of not playing, you get a couple of games under your belt then you go into summer and work some more, I think he’s much better (for it).”
George came into the pre-season on a mission.
“I just wanted to find my way,” he said. “Coming from a big-time injury, I needed that confidence back — that I can go out and make the plays that I need to, so when it comes to regular season I’m not trying stuff that’s out of the ordinary; it’s just going to feel second nature.”
With all of the grains of salt required with the exhibition season, it looks like George is finding his way. He put up 18.7 points and 6.3 rebounds this past month, with his all- around game glowing. He capped his pre-season with a huge dunk down the lane in Chicago, part of a 26point, 13-rebound night. The recovery process is ongoing. “There’s still some things that I used to do that I’m not fully comfortable or confident that I can do now, but it’s a small margin of it,” George said. “For the most part, I feel great out there. I feel confident that I’m good enough and well enough to be close to what I was.”
“It’s been inspiring,” Vogel said of George’s journey to this point. “When someone goes through something traumatic like that, you don’t know how they’re going to respond. His attitude has been fantastic from day one and he’s always believed that he was going to get back to this point and he’s worked diligently to get there.”