LAS VEGAS — There is a 50-50 chance that Paul George returns to the Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV late tonight or tomorrow. As of Thursday afternoon, he hadn’t been there since his leg snapped in half.
On one hand, he could go back there and revisit the site where he suffered perhaps the most gruesome injury in USA Basketball history, and see what it feels like to be back inside that building.
On the other hand, he could put it off until a later date.
Some things are better left alone until the time is right.
And this much seemed to be the case on the first day of Team USA camp: Like a visitor to the upper floors of the Skivrin Hotel in Oklahoma City, he seemed a little spooked.
Team USA opened its two-day minicamp on the campus of UNLV, holding a light practice at the Mendenhall Center, an adjacent arena to Thomas & Mack and a newer facility where many NBA Summer League games are held. There are actually three basketball courts in the adjoining buildings, and the scene of George’s injury was probably about 200 yards from where he spoke.
“Am I gonna go? I don’t know,” George told GetMoreSports.com. “Everything is vivid. When something that tragic happens, everything is vivid. I remember everything.”
What happened that night in 2014 was stomach turning.
George was running full speed to try to block a breakaway dunk during in intrasquad scrimmage, and he landed at the base of an old-fashioned basket stanchion. His lower leg snapped in half.
The arena went deathly silent, there was only one TV replay shown because it was too gruesome to show again, and the remainder of the scrimmage was canceled. George missed the entirety of the following NBA season.
Memories are short among some segments of the public, but they are not for the folks around USA Basketball. And they are certainly not for George.
At first eager and willing to talk about the moment, George suddenly pulled back when asked exactly what it felt like to have his leg snap in half.
Nobody wants to ask that question, but somebody had to.
It was an uncomfortable one to ask; and it was uncomfortable for George to answer. From the look on his face, looking him straight in the eye, the best reading I could get was that he was getting a sudden case of the heebyjeebies.
And so we shook hands and put the subject to rest, which was probably a good thing. Russell Westbrook came over and said hello to his teammate, George moved to another set of folding chairs and eventually held court for a round of softball questions from another news outlet, and the gym cleared out shortly thereafter
This two-day camp is about keeping things light, holding team meetings, deciding who wants to be on the roster for the World Cup in China next season and who wants to be on it for the 2020 Olympics in Japan.
Plans for an open public scrimmage were scrapped, because having one would serve no discernable purpose.
Also, nobody wants to have another Paul George night on their hands.
What ensued after the George injury has been well-documented. Kevin Durant suddenly withdrew from the team, and when he was criticized for “quitting,” he took offense. That subject was settled in private Thursday.
There are legions of Team USA stories.
Once, in 2012, Team USA went on to Washington, D.C., played an exhibition game against Brazil in front of President Obama and his family, along with Vice President Joe Biden and his family (the Secret Service was a little hyped up that night), then traveled to Manchester, England; Barcelona, Spain and eventually Madrid, where they blew the doors off Serbia in one of the most anti-climactic gold medal games in FIBA history.
No major international competitions have been held since the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, so what is happening over these two days in Vegas seems like one great big reunion with just about every heavy hitter in the NBA (except Kawhi Leonard) in attendance.
Gregg Popovich is coaching the team now, but Mike Krzyzewski was at practice Thursday in some sort of an emeritus role.
At least one player from the original Dream Team, Chris Mullin, was sitting courtside. And just about every deep-pocketed sponsor who is helping pay for the federation’s considerable expenses was given VIP treatment.
On the media end, one very young, very successful journalist came much closer than he realized to getting arrested and/or nightsticked by a security guard he defied six consecutive times. You have probably heard of him. I will not publicly shame him.
Otherwise, there was not much that could be surmised from watching the action on the court. You can’t learn much from a casual scrimmage, but you can learn bits and pieces from talking to guys. Andre Drummond, who was a part of that Madrid team, told me how he had lost 20 pounds by running more and eating a mostly vegan diet.
Naturally, the vegans were offended when this was posted to Twitter.
The buzz around the building concerned an incident that happened at a local arena the previous night when a game involving LeBron James Jr. was called off because of an altercation with a heckler in a Michael Jordan jersey that got a little too out of control. Nobody was quite sure whether LeBron would stick around and show his face Friday on the second and final day, but given his recent media aversion to non-controlled narratives, betting on him coming is inadvisable.
Then again, anything can happen in Vegas.
Which brings us back to Paul George.
The smart money in late June said George would be leaving Oklahoma City to join LeBron with the Los Angeles Lakers, but when the clock struck midnight (or 11 p.m. on Oklahoma), the player everyone presumed was a Laker-to-be had stayed with the Thunder, who have since jettisoned Carmelo Anthony and brought in Dennis Schroder, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Abdul Nader, along with draft pick Devon Hall, who may one day fill the gap at shooting guard that has never quite been filled since James Harden left. (The Thunder are currently 45-1 to win the 2019 NBA championship at BetDSI.com).
Who ends up on Team USA in 2020 will be determined in part by who agrees to go to China as part of the 2019 Team USA. This is what is called “equity” in the lingo of team poobah Jerry Colangelo, who will ultimately make the call, along with Popovich.
There may be no player with as much equity as George, who had every USA Basketball honcho at his hospital bedside four years ago after the broken leg incident.
Thomas & Mack has since upgraded its basket stanchions to move into the 21st century, and USA Basketball has continually upgraded its standing in the NBA community. Once upon a time, nobody wanted to be a part of it because nobody wanted to be among the first team that lost.
Then 2002 in Indianapolis happened, and then 2004 in Athens happened, and then 2006 in Japan happened.
Since then, Team USA is undefeated in international competitions when using rosters of NBA players. They are heavy favorites to take home the gold in Tokyo (-2000), with Australia (+500) having the next best odds.
There is no telling exactly who will be on the team in Tokyo, but the smart money says LeBron James will be there, because when you are a global icon who has been on three of the past four Olympic teams, there is really no good reason not to become a global icon who had been on four Olympic teams.
Heck, the guy can make it six in 2024 if he so chooses, and by then his son will be two years out of high school and Olympic-eligible if he has the talent to be among America’s Top 12.
But that is getting a little ahead of ourselves.
A year from now, Team USA will be back in Vegas, and there will most definitely be an exhibition game at the Thomas & Mack.
And if the team includes George, he will have no choice but to step onto that court, confront his fears — if he indeed has them — and go full steam like he did on that night nearly four years ago.
If he goes up to block a shot on a fast break, only one person will know if he is reliving a nightmare or overcoming a moment of trauma.
Here’s hoping that it is the latter.
The smart money says George will gamble on his inner strength … and win big.
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