The leg injury Paul George suffered with Team USA in 2014 that caused him to miss all but six games of the NBA’s 2014-15 season is officially behind him, just in case you were wondering.
Paul George is once again back with Team USA, prepping for a gold medal march in Rio that will begin in just a few weeks. And he’s feeling great, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com:
Now I know I’m healthy, I know I’m OK, I know I’m 100 percent,” George said. “I’m back to being myself. It’s no limitations. It’s no thought in my mind that I’m limited to something. I kind of just feel like all the chains are off of me and I’m free now.”
If Paul George is only just starting to feel like his old self, that’s a problem for the rest of the NBA. He was better than his old self last season, setting career highs in points per game, true shooting percentage, PER, assist percentage and offensive box plus-minus, according to Basketball-Reference.
And that was before he knew he was 100 percent healthy? Before he was playing without the burden of thinking—without the injury lingering in the back of his mind?
Holy. Crap.
Make sure you plan your Indiana Pacers regular-season prediction accordingly. They don’t have the look and feel of a bona fide playoff team on paper. But we’d be damned to bet against George now, knowing what he did in 2015-16, his first full year back from recovery.
Imagine what he will do for the Pacers now.
