Paul George’s broken right leg has left two teams reeling.
The U.S. men’s national team, too emotional to finish the exhibition game it was playing when George suffered the gruesome injury Friday night, had to shift its focus away from the World Cup of Basketball to thinking about an injured teammate.
The Indiana Pacers, a round short of the NBA Finals the last two years, were left pondering a season without their best player.
“This is a tough blow for not only USA Basketball, but for the Indiana Pacers,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said.
Both were thinking only of George, who remained at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas after surgery to repair an open tibia-fibula fracture. He was expected to remain hospitalized for about three days and the Pacers hope he can return to Indianapolis next week, though it will be months, perhaps a year, before he can return to the court.