A Reminder Of How Far Paul George Has Come
By Ben Gibson
Paul George still wants to be the best player in the world and is having one of his best seasons, even after his horrific injury 16 months ago.
When Indiana Pacers fans worry about Paul George’s December slump, it is hard to believe everyone wasn’t 100% sure if he was really back to his old self when the season began.
He’s now 16 months removed from the devastating leg injury he suffered on Team USA and now he’s looking at having the best season of his career. But even with so many things going his way right now, it is hard for him to forget that moment.
In Michael Lee’s post on Yahoo, Paul George said he is reminded of the injury every day.
"“Putting on socks. Just putting on socks is a reminder of what happened,” George told Yahoo Sports, “because it’s there. I’ve got to put the sock over the bump where the bone breakage happened. It’s a reminder every day.”The thick scar no longer taunts George as it did when he began taking those first grueling steps toward reclaiming the promising career some thought was over when he crashed into that basket stanchion during a Team USA scrimmage in August 2014. And since he pulls his socks up just above that deformed knot, the daily reminder isn’t visible to anyone who has watched George dazzle the NBA with easily the best feel-good comeback story of the early season.“I want people to use that as something inspirational. Because here I was, playing at the highest level, and a big accident happened. And it took me back,” George told Yahoo. “I had to work to get back to it.”"
His return and prolific production should be inspirational considering he’s having the best season of his career so far in points and many other categories when we were worried about whether he’d even play again in August of 2014.
Paul George Career Points, Rebounds and Assists | PointAfter
At the risk of sounding overly optimistic, this current slump is a good thing when you consider the worst-case scenarios everyone thought of when the injury happened. The question then was would he play again. Then it was could he be anything close to what he once was. Now it is whether he’s better than before the injury happened. So for him to be in a slump or just regressing to some of his old, still outstanding numbers, isn’t such a bad thing when you put it in perspective.
This season is still effectively a rebuilding year as Larry Bird saw three starters leave over the past two seasons, but it isn’t a bad year at all. The Indiana Pacers are currently one of the NBA’s better teams, much better than most the media expected and even better than what we here at 8 Points, 9 Seconds expected.
While his injury was different from Derrick Rose’s many ones, but it was hard not to wonder if Paul George was going to be in a situation like Rose where his body just wasn’t allowing him to be the player he once was. When he went down against the Memphis Grizzlies in April, that was one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind. We’re seeing now that isn’t the case as he looks perfectly fine, but maybe be should keep that in mind (as fans) when he’s struggling through a month like this one. Paul George isn’t having a great December, but really, that’s fine. The team even is finding ways to win without him going supernova.
When 2015 started, Indiana Pacers fans were still getting excited about practice videos of him just looking like a non-injured human being. Now we’re complaining about poor shooting nights.
Next: AMA Mailbag #6: Is Paul George Slumping, or Returning to the Mean?
I’m glad Paul George is just slumping or falling back to his previous greatness because, in an alternate universe, this could have been much worse. I’m content with worrying about if he can get back to being a top 5 scorer in the league and not worrying about his entire career being in jeopardy.