Paul George has made a miraculous comeback this past season, averaging 23.1 points and seven rebounds per game while guiding the Indiana Pacers to the playoffs. He also made a spot on the All-NBA third team and was named the cover athlete for NBA 2K17.
This all comes two years after suffering a gruesome leg injury in a Team USA scrimmage. George would end up missing the FIBA tournament, as well as playing only a few games towards the end of the 2014-15 season as his Pacers missed the playoffs.
With the Olympics two months away, George says he is going to give it a shot, as he told ESPN’s Cari Champion in an interview. George was unsure earlier if he planned to play due to the grind of this past NBA season, but it looks like he changed his mind.
“I was just hesitant on the simple fact that, the past couple years has obviously been tough for me — just felt like I didn’t have enough time to myself, and time to recover, and you know, give my body a rest. I didn’t want to jump out of a season, jump right into the Olympics. But I think I kind of said that too prematurely.
“I didn’t give myself enough time to really think it through. I think since I’ve been off, my body’s telling me yes, my mind is telling me yes, people around me are telling me yes. So I feel good about it. And, you know … I want to give it a shot.”
George was named one of the 31 finalists for the Olympic team, as promised to him by USA Basketball manging director Jerry Colangelo back in 2014.
“We thought it’s the right thing to do. That’s it. … We didn’t give thought to all the detail,” he told NBA.com. “Just that when a guy goes down and all these things, the circumstances, his career passes before him, he’s out for a year, a year-plus, he’s not able to participate now with us — we wanted to throw that out and say, ‘We’re counting on you. You’ve got a spot in ’16.'”
Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski plans to hold a four-day training camp from July 18-21 in Las Vegas to determine the final 12-man roster. Best of luck to PG.