What was supposed to be a showcasing of some of the best talent the world has to offer on Friday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, soon turned into an event in a state of shock as one of the game's best young stars was hauled out onto a stretcher. During the fourth quarter of the USA Men's Basketball Team's Blue vs White scrimmage, fans and players witnessed one of the most horrific sports injuries in recent memory when Paul George of the Indiana Pacers tried making a play on a fastbreak layup by Houston's James Harden. With all of his momentum on his right leg, George came down hard at an angle as his foot met with the stanchion near the bottom of the basket, leaving his leg nowhere to go but down as footage of the gruesome injury showed. Footage of the injury left us turning our heads and looking elsewhere, reminiscent of those suffered by such athletes as Joe Theismann, Shaun Livingston, Kevin Ware and more recently Anderson Silva of the UFC.
George suffered a compound fracture to the tibia and fibula in his right leg and was rushed to a nearby hospital. Being in the building to watch the game and witnessing the injury firsthand gave a different picture opposed to what fans may have seen watching the game on television. With my seats being in the upper deck and everything happening all at once, it was hard to immediately make out exactly what had happened and to who. But the immediate reaction from the fans sitting courtside and the players on the bench, many of which were hiding their faces in towels, gave you an idea that it was something serious. With the game being delayed for several minutes as members of the coaching staff and medical personnel rushed to the scene, any hopes we had of a player just being shaken up were erased once the stretcher came rolling out. As a majority of the arena was left still wondering who had gotten hurt, I began questioning why an instant replay of the incident had not been shown on the jumbotron and after later seeing the footage in slow-motion, I now know why. And in case you've yet to see the footage, I suggest you do so with caution if you're easily squeamish.
With chants of "U.S.A" being poured onto the court by fans showing their support, it wasn't long before players and coaches from both benches met near mid-court for prayer which coach Mike Krzyzewski then followed by addressing the fans that the exhibition game had come to an end despite the 9 minutes and 33 seconds remaining on the game clock. It would be a classy move by Coach K and one that all of the fans that I came in contact with fully understood which was ultimately the right decision in respect for George and his family. With players and fans all taking to Twitter after the incident to express their sympathy and wish him a speedy recovery, George himself took to the social media site a few hours later just before undergoing surgery to thank all those that have wished him well and said he'd be back and better than ever.
Rapid Reaction - While the injury to Paul George is very unfortunate, there's no denying that it'll change the way players look at competing at the international level and even more so in exhibition games like the one that took place tonight. Not to mention the team owners and general managers who cringe at the thought of these exhibition games players decide to play in after being signed to multi-Million dollar contracts. Could this be the beginning of the end for USA Basketball and the NBA's brightest stars that choose to play or is the privilege of playing for their country a big enough honor to keep the game's biggest names interested?
Though there's no denying the injury is a freak accident, it's obvious how unsafe the base of the basket is at Thomas & Mack where the UNLV Basketball team calls home. With the stanchion of the basket being several feet closer to the baseline than those that players in the NBA are used to, how it passed inspection and was cleared for use is beyond me. What's sad is that it takes something like this to occur before we can question whether or not the base of the basket is safe. In other words, it was an accident waiting to happen and it just so happened to take place on one of the biggest stages.
The game was also supposed to serve as somewhat of a welcome back party for Bulls star point guard Derrick Rose who's endured a number of injuries of his own over the last several seasons and is expected to be at full strength this year. And had it not been for the injury to George, the story of the game at least in my eyes was D.Rose. Rose made a number of turnovers during a stretche where it appeared he was trying to do too much at times, but overall he looked good and displayed the explosiveness that we've all grown to love and expect from the 2011 league MVP when he made a dazzling layup on one play before slamming home a dunk on another. And though it was just a small sample size of what we saw from D.Rose in the limited action he saw on the court, it was enough to convince me that the Chicago Bulls will be serious contenders to win the Eastern Conference this year assuming he stays healthy. It may be a bold statement but with Paul George most likely out for the season in Indiana, the Knicks still being in a mess, the Cavs adjusting to life with LeBron again and Miami now without their best player of the last four seasons, the Bulls can very much contend for a title if D.Rose resembles anything like the 3-time All-Star that dominated his first three seasons in the league from 2010-12.
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With the start of the 2013-14 NBA season in full effect, one of the main storylines to keep an eye on is who if anybody can dethrone the Miami Heat out east. Since LeBron James made his highly criticized 'Decision' to take his talents to South Beach and join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in the Summer of 2010, Miami has had little competition in the Eastern Conference having made three consecutive trips to the NBA Finals, winning the last two. But last season saw the Heat meet their toughest match yet in the Eastern Conference Finals as the Indiana Pacers gave LeBron and company a run for their money. And though Miami eventually won the thrilling best-of-seven series in a lopsided game 7, the Pacers showed to the rest of the league that the Heat could in fact be beaten. And had it not been for a coaching blunder by Pacers head coach Frank Vogel in game 1 when he chose to sit his best defender in Roy Hibbert who's absence in the paint proved to be costly, allowing LeBron James to drive through the lane for the game-winning lay-up, we could very well be looking at a different NBA champion.
But enough with all the ifs and buts, the fact remains that last year the Indiana Pacers came within one win of upsetting the defending world champion Miami Heat, something they plan on accomplishing this season if given a second chance. Proving that last season was no fluke, the Pacers who finished last season with an overall record of 49-32, are off to their best start in franchise history having won all 8 of their games this year, standing tall as the league's last and only unbeaten team. Allowing a league-low to opponents in both points per game and field goal shooting percentage, Indiana once again poses the biggest threat to LeBron James and the Miami Heat's chances of making it a three-peat. And with one of their best players in Danny Granger expected back sometime in the near future, the Pacers could get even better. But depending on what role coach Vogel decides to use his All-Star forward in, the wrong move could cost his team in the long run. The absence of Granger who led the Pacers in scoring in each season from 2007-08 to 2011-12 before missing all but the first five games last year due to a knee injury, allowed Paul George to breakout and rise to stardom while being named to his first All-Star team and taking home the NBA's Most Improved Player honors.
Another player who's benefited from Granger's absence is Lance Stephenson who took over the starting role and is off to the best start of his career this season. So plugging Granger back into the starting lineup might not be the easiest thing to do for coach Vogel, nor would it be the smartest. At least not yet. Having Granger come off the bench could give the Pacers a jolt both offensively and defensively as he plans to get back onto the court for the first time since straining his left calf almost a month ago. A limited role would allow him to get back into the gist of things physically without disrupting what the Pacers currently have going with their starting lineup. After all, if it ain't broken don't fix it, right? But back to Indiana's biggest concern -- the Miami Heat. The Pacers are the one team in the east that can match up best with Miami on both sides of the ball while teams like Chicago and New York lack the depth and physicality that Indiana possesses. As for Brooklyn, another team likely to make the playoffs, let's just see if their old, fragile lineup can make it to season's end in one piece.
The Pacers are also one of the deeper teams in the league after adding depth in the offseason by acquiring power forward Luis Scola from the Phoenix Suns via trade. All of this coupled with Indiana's stellar play could help the Pacers who are coming off their first Central Division title since 2004, get over the hump and surpass the Miami Heat for Eastern Conference supremacy. Locking up home-court advantage would definitely increase Indiana's chances in doing so as we all witnessed just how important playing at home was last year when the Heat held off the Pacers in Miami in the decisive game 7.
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