Paul George Injury Could Spell End Of ‘Dream Teams’
It’s been just over twenty-four hours since Paul George broke his leg in a most gruesome fashion during a Team USA scrimmage in Las Vegas. The injury shattered George’s leg and required immediate surgery. Doctors and officials for the Indiana Pacers have said the broken leg will keep Paul George out of basketball for 12 to 18 months.
It doesn’t matter that Paul George is one of the best and brightest NBA stars, who put up MVP-like numbers while leading the Pacers to the best record in the eastern conference last season. It doesn’t matter that the injury, coupled with the loss of free agent Lance Stephenson, who signed with Charlotte, has completely crippled the Pacers’ hopes for the coming season, and possibly even the 2015-16 season as well. A team, a city, and arguably a league is now out of one of its superstars and the cost to all could very well be in the tens of millions. All because Team USA, the so-called “Dream Team,” has an international FIBA World Cup competition in Spain later this month, and the NBA wants its stars to compete. Even if it means that the competition, much like the Summer Olympics, are essentially exhibitions that amount to shiny medals and patriotic bragging rights.
The NBA has found a revenue stream in these competitions. Jersey sales for Team USA players and sneaker deals add coin to the coffers, as the NBA gets a cut of all money made, while the players are not even paid for their service. They are told that they are doing their patriotic duty. And for team owners who invest millions into these players, it’s a scary game of injury roulette. Paul George’s injury highlights that maybe it’s time to pull the millionaire cash cows out of international competitions like the Olympics and go back to a mix of amateur players and NBA development league guys.
Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, is very outspoken when it comes to using NBA players in competitions like the Olympics. On Saturday, Cuban commented to The New York Times on what has become a hot button topic in light of Paul George’s unfortunate accident.
Cuban said the only parties left financially vulnerable in such situations were the league and its clubs.
“We are so stupid that we are willing to commit what amounts to more than a billion dollars in salaries to help the Olympics line their pockets so we can pretend that the Olympic Games are about national pride,”
Jon Barry, an analyst for ESPN, reinforced to the New York Times how the mindset of the NBA owners is shifting after the events of Friday night.
the NBA, from a marketing standpoint, had more to lose than to gain from the Olympics because fans expected the United States national team to dominate. He said he understood how an owner spending tens of millions of dollars on a player might be wary of seeing him play competitive games away from the team.
The cost of Paul George’s injury can not be easily tabulated, just twenty-four hours removed from the freak accident. NBA teams run the risk of their players getting injured anytime, anywhere, and while George’s injury is easily the worst of them all, his is also the first to hit Team USA, or the “Dream Team,” since Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin injured his knee at a Team USA training camp in 2012, which cost him three months of the 2012-13 season. The Washington Post reports that Pau Gasol, then of the Memphis Grizzlies, broke his foot in 2006 while playing in the World Championships for Spain, and Manu Ginobli of the San Antonio Spurs injured his ankle in the 2008 Olympics, but these weren’t Dream Team players, and none were as bad as what Paul George is going through.
With the horrific images of George’s leg shattering on the hardwood floor still in the minds of fans, grumblings of owners finally standing up and keeping their players out of competition can be heard loud and clear. Yahoo! Sports‘ Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted earlier today:
Owners and GMs united tonight: Paul George injury could be tipping point for use of stars in international play. “Game-changer,” GM told me.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 2, 2014
And Mark Jones at ESPN piped in that the Dream Teams may soon be a thing of the past.
Kevin Love didn’t play because of the possibility of what happened to Paul George.This will be a turning point.No more NBA stars in FIBA.$$$
— MarkJonesESPN (@MarkJonesESPN) August 2, 2014
Paul George is now out of surgery and will remain in a hospital for three days to guard against infection. He will then go back to Indianapolis where he will begin the arduous task of healing what is broken. But for NBA players playing in international competitions going forward, that break may never heal. The age of the Dream Team may be over, and it died in the screams of Paul George’s crumpled body on a floor in Las Vegas.
