It has been less than 12 hours since Paul George suffered that horrific leg in last night's Team USA scrimmage and a lot of news has surfaced. Let's get you caught up on it all. George's injury is being described as a compound fracture of the tibia and fibula. Around seven hours ago, multiple sources revealed that George had a "successful" surgery which involved putting a pin in his leg. No additional damage was found and according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst, there was "no ancillary damage and that will greatly help recovery."
ESPN's Ramona Shelburne reports that "there's hope he could return before end of next year." However, George is likely out for the entire 2014-15 season.
A short while ago, Pacers president Larry Bird released a lengthy, heartfelt, updated statement which you can read below:
“Our first thoughts are with Paul and his family. It is way too early to speculate on his return as the No. 1 priority for everyone will be his recovery. Our initial discussions with our doctors and the doctors in Las Vegas have us very optimistic. We are hopeful at some point next week Paul will return to Indianapolis to continue his recovery.
“There is no question about the impact on our team but our goal is to be as strong-willed and determined as Paul will be in coming back. Our franchise has had setbacks in its history but has demonstrated the abilities to recover. Paul will provide the example of that off the court and it is up to the rest of us to provide that example on the court. Any discussion regarding the future of our team would be inappropriate at this time. Our focus is solely on Paul and doing whatever we can to help.
”We still support USA Basketball and believe in the NBA's goals of exposing our game, our teams and players worldwide. This is an extremely unfortunate injury that occurred on a highly-visible stage, but could also have occurred anytime, anywhere.
“Finally, the Pacers would like to thank our fans and the NBA community for their outreach of support in the brief amount of time since the injury occurred. It has been overwhelming and it is what makes Indiana and the NBA special.”
[via Brian Windhorst; SportsCenter]
