Team USA promises injured Paul George a spot on 2016 Olympic team

USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said Thursday that Indiana Pacers forward Paul George will have a spot on the Team USA roster competing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. George injured his leg in a Team USA intra-squad scrimmage on Aug. 1.

Author:
SI Wire
Publish date:
Aug 8, 2014

USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo told Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com on Thursday that Indiana Pacers forward Paul George will have a spot on the Team USA roster competing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

George injured his leg in a Team USA intra-squad scrimmage on Aug. 1. The forward had to be taken off the court on a stretcher, and the scrimmage was ended early.

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From NBA.com:

"We’ve told him we have a spot for him in ’16,” Colangelo told NBA.com at festivities Thursday in advance of the Friday enshrinement of the Hall of Fame class.

"We thought it’s the right thing to do,” Colangelo said. “That’s it…. We didn’t give thought to all the detail. Just that when a guy goes down and all these things, the circumstances, his career passes before him, he’s out for a year, a year-plus, he’s not able to participate now with us — we wanted to throw that out and say, ‘We’re counting on you. You’ve got a spot in ’16.’"

Colangelo also said there are plans to make sure George has a "visible presence: at the FIBA World Cup in Spain, which begins on Aug. 30.

GALLERY: RARE PHOTOS FROM THE 1984 OLYMPIC BASKETBALL TRIALS

Rare shots: 1984 Olympic Basketball Trials

Bob Knight

140430121225-1984-olympic-basketball-dotcom109-single-image-cut.jpg — Tony Tomsic/SI

In the spring of 1984, Indiana coach Bob Knight invited the best 72 amateur basketball players in the country to try out for the Olympics. As Karl Malone, then a burly forward at Louisiana Tech, put it to Sports Illustrated at the time, "They said they was gettin' the best 72 and they wasn't tellin' no stories." SI sent three photographers to cover the tryouts, which included Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, John Stockton and other future stars.