Paul George Talks to Reggie Miller for NBA TV
By Ben Gibson
Starting out with “Things haven’t gone well since the Pacers lost the Eastern Conference Finals…”, the NBA Gametime segment on Paul George starts out with an understatement.
One might say things haven’t gone well since mid-January for the Pacers, and the Paul George injury was merely the grand finale of a terrible 2014 for Indiana.
Paul George sat down and talked on a number of issues with Reggie Miller, from his injury to his Twitter faux pas, and what the future holds for him and the Indiana Pacers.
We’d suggest watching the whole video, but Pacers fans might be happy to know the recovery process from PG’s broken leg is going well, and he’s positive about himself and the team, but reality is setting in.
"Reggie Miller: Paul, it’s been a little over a month and a half since the leg injury, number one, how are you feeling?Paul George: I’m feeling good. You know, this is probably still a tough time just because all the guys that are starting to show up at this point in the season, for the most part, were looking forward to this year to play alongside with me. And to not be out there with those guys, it’s a reality check at this point.Larry Bird: In losing Paul, that’s a different story. I think our goals are not set as high as last year, but we are going to compete. We’re going to put a team out there that plays together, plays hard."
Paul George said the most recent x-ray shows the heeling process going well and Miller asked him to walk him through what happened.
"George: I just remember going up, trying to make a play on the ball. I just came down and my leg was on fire. I was in a crazy amount of pain for like the first five minutes. The whole crowd took a gasp. And then the trainers came over, rushed over, as well as my teammates.But the person that really helped me was the [Oklahoma City] Thunder’s trainer [Joe Sharpe]. I tried to get up almost like in a sit-up position to look at my leg, and he pushed me back down and told me, ‘Everything’s going to be okay. Don’t look at it. You broke your leg, but you’re going to get through it. Just stay strong.’"
Whenever PG does comeback, the Eastern Conference will be much different than the one he left from the 2013-14 season, but the Pacers’ franchise player doesn’t plan on staying away from the team while he heals.
"Miller: You talked about the frustration of being injured, possibly for the whole year. What will Paul George be doing other than rehabbing to kind of stay engaged with these guys?George: The last thing I want to do is feel like I’m not a part of this team and take myself out of still prepping and getting ready for games. I still wanna go about, you know, game days the same way as if I was playing.…Miller: When you do come back, the landscape of the Eastern Conference will have changed.George: I’m looking forward to when I come back. I love battles, I love going against LeBron, Carmelo, and even going against the whole Bulls. It’s fun. It’s what you live for, the reason why you wanna be in the league. It’s where you make your name off of, so I like the battles."
The full segment is available to watch on NBA.com.