His first thought wasn’t good.
As he lay on the court last week, Paul George began thinking the worst. Is this what a torn anterior cruciate ligament feels like? Did he tear his medial cruciate ligament?
“I was just like (darn) when is the pain going to stop?,” George said. “It was like throbbing; it was hurting. And the only thing going through my mind is like I hope I didn’t tear any major stuff. I hope I didn’t blow out my knee.”
George publicly spoke about his knee injury for the first time on an episode of “Podcast P” that was released on Monday but recorded last week. The Clippers’ All-Star wing suffered a sprained right knee last Tuesday after colliding with Oklahoma City’s Lu Dort while jumping for a rebound during the fourth quarter. He called it a “wild play.”
“It was crazy because I couldn’t walk right. I tried to put pressure on it when I tried to walk off the court, but they had to carry me,” George said. “But then when I got back into the locker room, I felt the pain go down. So, I was like maybe it ain’t that bad.”
The eight-time All-Star is not expected to have surgery, and could be back for the postseason, should the Clippers advance past the first round. Any return before that is thought to be too soon.
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“I don’t know when that (return) date is, but the last thing I can do is not be involved with what’s going on because who knows how long injuries take,” George said.
George is no stranger to significant injuries, the most serious of which occurred when he was playing in an exhibition game for Team USA in August 2014. George suffered a gruesome compound fracture to his leg when he jammed his foot in the base of the backboard stanchion.