Paul George’s Injury Fuels Concerns in N.B.A. Over International Competition

A horrible incident occurred in today's team USA blue vs white basketball scrimmage.

Paul George underwent an operation on an open fracture in Las Vegas, USA Basketball said Saturday. Credit John Locher/Associated Press

A horrible incident occurred in today's team USA blue vs white basketball scrimmage.

The severity of Paul George’s injury — the sight of his right leg bent grotesquely — has sent a jolt through the N.B.A.

USA Basketball issued a statement overnight Friday indicating that George, an Indiana Pacers forward participating in a national team training camp in Las Vegas, had undergone successful surgery to repair a fracture of the bones in his lower right leg sustained in a scrimmage.

Larry Bird, the president of basketball operations for the Pacers, said Saturday that it was premature to speculate on how long George’s recovery might take, but that he was likely to miss the coming season.

It was a devastating setback for George, 24, one of the league’s brightest young stars. And it created a new flash point in the discussion about the value of N.B.A. players’ participation in off-season international basketball competitions.

Players generally like to represent their country, but many will opt out if their contract status in the N.B.A. becomes uncertain. Coaches extol the virtues of learning and improving in international settings. The league appreciates the global exposure of its players, though it gets few tangible benefits. Team owners worry that their players, in whom they have invested a lot of money, will be hurt.

“There’s so many angles to consider,” said Jon Barry, a former player who is an analyst at ESPN.

The United States team is preparing for the FIBA World Cup, formerly called the World Championship, a 28-team tournament that begins this month in Spain and whose winner automatically qualifies for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“Nothing has given me more satisfaction or been more meaningful than having USA on my shirt,” said P. J. Carlesimo, who has coached four N.B.A. teams and has worked with the national program since the 1980s. 

Carlesimo said players who went through a national team training camp often improved. He said the camp setting was more controlled and thus safer than the pickup games, charity events and personal training sessions many players take part in during the summer.

He noted, as have others, that no other major injury had been sustained by a player in a USA Basketball setting since the first Dream Team was formed in 1992.

Several officials with N.B.A. teams said Saturday that George’s injury, sustained when he leapt to contest a fast-break layup and struck the base of a backboard stanchion, was a freak incident, though it was unclear whether the stanchion had been properly positioned.

Barry said the N.B.A., from a marketing standpoint, had more to lose than to gain from the Olympics because fans expected the United States national team to dominate. He said he understood how an owner spending tens of millions of dollars on a player might be wary of seeing him play competitive games away from the team.

One such owner is Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, a longtime critic of how the league approaches international competitions. The subject of altering the system — including instituting an age limit for N.B.A. players in the Olympics or having the league host its own global competition — gathered steam during the 2012 Games in London, but Cuban said Saturday that discussions had not developed in any substantial way.

Cuban said the Olympics made significant revenue from N.B.A. players. He pointed out that players in all sports, not just basketball, often declined to participate in international tournaments when they were free agents, or were about to be, out of fear that they would be injured. That, he said, was the smart financial decision.

Cuban said the only parties left financially vulnerable in such situations were the league and its clubs.

“We are so stupid that we are willing to commit what amounts to more than a billion dollars in salaries to help the Olympics line their pockets so we can pretend that the Olympic Games are about national pride,” Cuban said.

On Saturday, Bird expressed strong support for the national team.

“We still support USA Basketball and believe in the N.B.A.’s goals of exposing our game, our teams and players worldwide,” he said in a statement. “This is an extremely unfortunate injury that occurred on a highly visible stage, but could also have occurred anytime, anywhere.”

Bird said that it was inappropriate to speculate on the future of the Pacers’ roster and that the focus should be on George’s health and recovery. But the injury is a blow to a team that is among the elite in the Eastern Conference. George, a two-time All-Star, averaged 21.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.9 steals per game last season.

One longtime N.B.A. agent, who asked for anonymity while discussing a player he did not represent, said, “Paul is so important to the Pacers that I am not sure they can make up for his loss in any way.”

Via:NYtimes