Before suffering a devastating and gruesome injury while playing for Team USA in an exhibition game in the summer of 2014, Paul George was one of the rising stars in the NBA, with a bright future ahead as one of the best two-way players in the game.
However, once he went down with that awful leg injury in a game that had no meaning, there was no telling what the future would hold for this promising young star, as it would not only be a challenge to recover physically but perhaps even tougher mentally.
Fortunately for the then-face of the Indiana Pacers franchise, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who was nearing the end of his playing career and had gone through the process of recovering from an Achilles injury, was willing to help.
While on Podcast P with Paul George, the father of the newly signed Philadelphia 76ers forward talked about seeing his son go through that difficult recovery process and how his son’s agent got Bryant on the phone to help him through a tough time in the prime of his NBA career:
“His agent, Aaron, for some reason, he got Mr. Bryant on the phone, Kobe,” George Sr. said. “So he gives the phone to Paul, and so him and Paul are talking. When he gets done, he said, ‘Guess who I was talking,’ and he’s laying there, he’s smiling now. He said, ‘I just got through talking to Kobe Bryant.’ And then after that, they wheeled him in.”
The 76ers star opened up about how Bryant helped him get through one of the most challenging times of his NBA career and how it was “surreal” getting advice from someone who had the reputation of being able to battle through anything throughout his playing career:
“Obviously, he was just showing his support,” George said of his call with the Lakers superstar. “He was like, ‘If you need anything from me, I’m here. I’m in this with you.’ But he was just like, ‘The rehab is going to be tough. The work is going to be hard.’ And he was like, ‘Nobody wants to rehab,’ because this is the first time I’ve ever been injured or broke anything. I f—– my ankle up in college, but it didn’t require surgery; it was just time off. So this was like the first injury I ever had that required surgery. He was just like, ‘The work is going to be tedious, it’s going to be tiresome, you’re not going to want to do it, but he was like my advice is to attack rehab the same way you attack working out on the court.’ He was like, ‘You find fun in working out on the basketball court. You’ve got to find that same fun for the rehab. There’s no other way you’re going to get through it. It’s just attack rehab like you attack the basketball court.’ And that took me a long ways because instantly, I knew everything he said leading up to it. How hard it is, the tedious work it takes, doing the same shit day after day. That gets exhausting. And so if he didn’t tell me that and warn me ahead of time, then my mind kind of would’ve been all over the place of not being all the way there, trying to do this, not giving it 100 percent, but he kind of warned me on that. And so that second end of attacking it like basketball, I was like, ‘Alright, he said it was going to be tedious, but now I’ve got to just give it everything I got every time I work out.’ That was kind of the breakthrough. But I was surreal about the call. And I was still drugged up [at the time].”
George is one of many current NBA players that Bryant has helped over the years, whether recovering from a career-threatening injury or simply improving their game on the basketball court.
Even though Bryant has been gone for over four years now, these stories continue to surface, showing his impact on today’s stars and the league itself.
Paul George’s dad reveals he wanted son to sign with Lakers
The Los Angeles Clippers let superstar forward Paul George walk in NBA free agency this summer, which is a move that no one saw coming, as many believed he’d remain with the team on a long-term basis. George didn’t like the offers coming his way from Steve Ballmer and company, so he chose to leave the team in favor of signing with the Philadelphia 76ers.
However, before deciding to join forces with one-time NBA MVP Joel Embiid in Philadelphia, George’s father urged him to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers after feeling betrayed by the Clippers, which would’ve been a wild scenario for all teams involved.
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