Stanchion Paul George collided with was closer to baseline than in NBA arenas

After Paul George suffered a horrific compound leg fracture during Team USA's Friday night scrimmage, the proximity between the basket stanchion he collided with and the baseline was immediately brought to everyone's attention.

Upon initial inspection, there can be no doubting that the stanchion was far closer to the court than what you see in the NBA. Here's a comparison of the now-infamous stanchion at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and a stanchion at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

According to ESPN's Brian Windhorst, the stanchion was 2.2 feet closer to the baseline than NBA regulation allows. That's a significant difference when you consider the limited room players already have beyond the baseline.

And as Windhorst also pointed out while examining the stanchion, it's a costly difference as George was likely under the impression that he had more room to land and adjust his footing on the attempted block.

Per ESPN via SB Nation: 

This is the stanchion where Paul George got his foot stuck. This is closer than the normal NBA regulation should be. I have to admit: I don't know what the actual definitions are, but I know from just eyeballing it that it may be a foot or two closer to the baseline than you'd normally have at an NBA arena. We'll obviously hear from Paul down the line, but [he didn't think] he'd have to worry about landing on the basket stanchion because he wouldn't have had to worry about it. He's landed many, many times without worrying about it. That's one of the issues with this arena. It's why the NBA won't have a team back here and it's why they haven't brought the All-Star game back here. Even if they wanted to take the stanchion back even further, the stanchion as is is almost in the tunnel.