Indiana Pacers superstar Paul George suffered a horrific leg injury during the USA Basketball intrasquad exhibition match on Friday in Las Vegas.
George challenged James Harden's layup in the 9:33 mark of the fourth quarter. His right leg smashed into the stanchion and snapped.
The exhibition match was halted for around 10 minutes before George was stretchered off the floor. USA national coach Mike Krzyzewski announced afterwards that the game won't continue out of respect to George and his family.
"This is a first for us in USA Basketball, to have something like this take place," USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said of the decision to stop the match via Yahoo Sports. "It's a tough situation for our entire organization, the coaches, the players. Very, very emotional. There's no way the game could have gone on under the circumstances."
USA national team coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the match that the players were very emotional during their huddle - a proof that players in the pool have developed brotherhood over the past several days.
"We got all the players together, Jerry addressed them and then I did. Very emotional setting," Krzyzewski said. "There's a brotherhood in the NBA and to me at moments like this family or brotherhood shows its heart, it shows its depth, and that's what I thought our players showed during that time."
George, who averaged 21.7 points and 6.8 rebounds for the Pacers last season, was considered as a shoe-in for the final 12-man roster for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.
Both Colangelo and Krzyzewski refused to talk about possible roster after the game, saying that they have yet to think about possible reductions.
"As an organization, we're just going to let a little bit of time go by here before we address anything like rosters, all that stuff," Colangelo said. "It seems so unimportant in the big scheme of things when you have something like this take place. It puts things in perspective."
Losing George will be another blow to Team USA's title defense after also losing superstars Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge, and 2014 Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard even before the training camp started.
Below is the video showing the play that led to George's injury:
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