Climb down from the ledges Ye Pacer Fans

First appeared on August 7, 2014
in The Lebanon Reporter

Paul George’s injury in the fourth quarter of a Team USA scrimmage last week set in motion a string of dominoes that, for better or worse, are still falling as we speak. Maybe it’s the fact George is such a promising star, maybe it’s the fact the injury was so horrific it made Kevin Ware and Joe Theismann both wince uncomfortably, or maybe it’s just late July, early August and there is nothing, absolutely and positively nothing, for sports writers and the talking heads to write or talk about.

Late July to early August is when Americans feign an interest in baseball, most big name sports analysts go on vacation and newspaper editors turn to their most talented part time pretend sports columnists to make it seem as though frog jumping contests are so compelling they deserve an audience wider than just ten year olds or men with two first names.

Enter a rising star, the cornerstone of his franchise, playing for his country in an already controversial Olympic system that allows professional athletes to compete in an arena traditionally reserved for amateurs. Throw in a compound fracture captured on film and you have the makings of great fodder.

Desperate times call for people to bust out their own personal agendas. For Mark Cuban it’s suddenly about respecting the fact professional athletes are commodities. For Team USA it’s about promoting the fact professional athletes are commodities who care about their country and for the players participating it’s about generating exposure to become a more marketable commodity. But let’s not get tangled up in the economics of it all.

This is more about the avalanche of speculation and negative reaction, both of which have reached a predictably fevered pitch given the timing. This simply means Pacers Fans need to take a collective step back from the proverbial ledge and remember one small detail so many seem to be overlooking. Despite the unfortunate nature of the accident, Paul George is still alive.

Obviously I’m not qualified to weigh in on the prognosis of George’s injury considering I’m not a doctor. I’m not an NBA Insider or classically trained journalist either, which simply proves America is the greatest country on Earth. Still, people need to stop talking about Paul George as if he has died. They also need to stop talking as if we can climb into the WABAC Machine and tell him to sit the fourth quarter out. Mr. Peabody isn’t walking through that door anytime soon, which means Pacers fans need to stop friend requesting every American named Sherman and shift their focus to what happens moving forward.

To be as completely unclear as possible, wholesale changes to the Pacers roster are not necessary, however they shouldn’t be considered totally removed from the realm of possibility either. Aside from the glaring fact George is in no way eulogy material, he’s also yet to reach his prime production years.

Only in his mid- twenties, George’s window for competing at a high level is so wide open even the average American could still squeeze through it. This means if we do see the Pacers brass dismantling this roster, there should be no panic. If Indiana chooses to retool, they still have a franchise player coming back in 2015; one who should do so at a high level.

While the sum of it all is maddeningly incalculable, the facts are somewhat clearer. Paul George has a long road ahead to make it back and the Pacers front office has went from having some really big decisions to make to having a lot more really big decisions to make.

© 2014 Eric Walker Williams