George wants to 'be an inspiration' to gymnast who broke leg
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When Paul George suffered a gruesome injury during a USA basketball scrimmage in 2014, some doubted whether he could ever play basketball again.
The swingman received a flood of support, and the most helpful piece of counsel came from a recently retired great.
"The best advice given to me was from Kobe (Bryant)," George told Sean Deveney of Sporting News. "I remember a phone call he gave me, he was basically saying, attack this rehab the same way you attack the summer working out. That was the best advice I could have gotten at that point. It became a different challenge. It was not preparing for the NBA season, it was preparing for the comeback."
When French gymnast Samir Ait Said broke his leg on a vault landing, George tweeted out encouragement to his fellow Olympian. Being able to relate, the Indiana Pacers star sought to visit Said on Monday. It didn't happen, but he hasn't given up.
"I am not sure what his status is, if he got discharged from the hospital or not," George said. "But at some point, I am going to go over and have a chat with him, sit down with him. Try to be an inspiration to him. I know what it is like going through it. Hopefully, the advice I can give can be useful."
The Team USA wing has prepared for that conversation by viewing footage of Said's injury.
"I didn't want to watch it, but in order for me to go over and talk to him, I had to see what happened. It was tough," he admitted.
George has been stellar so far for the Americans, averaging 17.5 points, 3.5 boards, and two assists in 19 minutes per outing.