Paul George's Injury Is Not Pretty (UPDATED)

((HT: ESPN/USA Basketball))

It's very serious and just reminds us of the Joe Theismann injury...

It's difficult to see in real time, but if you think your stomach can take it in slower speed- it's about a minute after the incident happens in real time...


Coach K stopped the scrimmage after the injury out of respect- a wise move...

USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo was asked about the injury after the game was called:

"This is a tough blow, not only for USA basketball but for the Indiana Pacers," he said. "And so as an organization we're just going to let a little time go by here before we address rosters ... it seems so unimportant in scheme of things. When you have something like this, it puts things in perspective."

Colangelo is right. It's a tough blow for the Pacers- bordering catastrophic for the upcoming season...

More when we know more...

PM UPDATE: ESPN's Brian Windhorst is making a good point about the stanchion under the left (as the TV camera shows it) basket and how it appears closer to the court than in a normal NBA contest.

The picture on his Twitter account makes a good argument.

Paul George Launches From Terre Haute... And Makes...

((HT: NBA TV))

There would be only two reasons the HQ would show this...

A make or a laughable miss...

He made the former from, about, 35-feet...


No, it wasn't a continuation from the conversation of last night's selfishness on the floor from the Pacers...

The play-by-play was right... the shot clock was down to two and hadn't reset...

Nice launch...

And The Dunk Of The Night Goes To...???

((HT: Kyle Weidie's Vine))

Either John Wall...


Or Paul George...
((HT: Wells P's Vine))

Pacer Fwd Paul George Buys All Tickets to Fresno St. Season Opener

((ht: thebusinessjournal.com))

Wow! Indiana Pacers all-star forward Paul George celebrated his new contract in rather spectacular fashion.

It appears Mr. George bought every single ticket to his alma mater's (Fresno St) season opener on November 16th.

That would be 15,695 tickets. Yes, 15,695....now free tickets to the public.

Read more from the The Business Journal (Fresno) RIGHT HERE

Bravo Mr. George. We don't know exactly how much money that adds up to, but we're pretty sure it's a lot.

George can afford the generosity. He just signed an $80 plus million dollar, 5-year contract extension with the Pacers.

And yes, that's a lot of money for anyone.

If you are unfamiliar with Paul George, he's one of the best NBA players you may not have heard of. Here's a brief highlight reel:

Roy Hibbert Docked $75K For Post Game Gay Slur

Nobody will ever really know what possessed Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert to say what he did during a post-game interview after the Pacers Game 6 win over the Miami Heat Saturday night.

But he said it.

For some reason, he responded to a question about defending Heat star LeBron James by saying "No Homo".

And though Hibbert has apologized for saying it, it's not something you can really take back. Even by reaching out to Jason Collins, wasn't going to cut it.

With that in mind, the NBA announced Sunday afternoon Hibbert would get a $75,000 fine.

Yes, NBA Commish David Stern has said he believes Hibbert is sincere in his apologies, he still had to fine him. And he's right.

Hibbert is not the first NBA player...or athlete to say things such as this and whether you like it or not, you just can't say stuff like that.

At some point, homophobic comments are going to cost athletes a game. Quite honestly, Hibbert is somewhat fortunate this one didn't cost him one. With the Heat and Pacers going to a game 7 in their hard-fought East Division finals, there's no way something like this would cost a starter for either team a game.

But eventually it will....

And before you say it, we haven't reported on this up until now. That's why we are posting the video of Saturday nights presser:

Pacers Get Split In Miami, Series Tied At 1

((HT: NBA on TNT))

This was huge...

Home court advantage is now with the Indiana Pacers. Roy Hibbert had 29 points and Paul George had 22 as the Pacers took a lead early in Miami against the Heat and held on for the 97-93 win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.

"We haven't done anything yet," Hibbert said post-game. "We haven't closed the series out. We won one game. A lot of us feel we should be up 2-0."

And Hibbert is right. Save for him not in the game for the last 2.2 seconds, the series should have been all Indiana.
LeBron James had his opportunities in Game 1. It was the idea of the Pacers to take those away from him Game 2...

Here's the highlights...


"Heck of a basketball game, wasn't it?" Pacers head coach Frank Vogel asked the media post-game.

He was right...

The Pacers trailed for only 15 seconds in the first half, and Indiana led by 10 late in the first quarter and by 13 with a minute to go before half time.

ICYMI: Great Game: Heat Barely Beat Pacers in OT

Yes, the NBA Playoff go on forever, but every once in awhile, the games can be absolutely fantastic to watch.

That was the case Wednesday night as the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers squared off in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat won 103-102 in Overtime.

The game went back and forth, close most of the way.

Paul George nearly won the game for the Pacers by himself.

He drained a long, 32-foot 3-point shot to tie the game at the end of regulation.

Here are his amazing highlights, including the 3-pointer and nearly winning the game with 2.2 seconds left in overtime. George finished with 27-points



But George was topped by the seemingly incomparable LeBron James. James had a triple double (30-pts, 10-rebounds, 10-assists) and scored when needed.

He was needed as his driving layup at the buzzer in overtime provided the difference, winning the game.

Today's Newspaper Fail: Atlanta Looks Forward To Game 7 With Pacers

((HT: AJC their own selves))

This is what happens why newspapers continue their slide toward irrelevance...

You put the thing to bed way too early for the facts to get in the way of a sidebar headline...


 

In other news, Dewey Defeats Truman and Jarome Iginla Has Been Traded To Boston...

Funny: Pacers Center Roy Hibbert goes Gangam Style

Yeah, we know, we are sorry for posting yet another "Gangnam Style" video, but this one was kinda funny because it featured 7ft 2in Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert.

Here is the setup. It happened at the Pacers "Meet the Rookie" event at an Indianapolis area mall. And it basically unfolds like a flash mob.

One dancer, then 2, then 4 and a minute or so in, here comes Hibbert, dressed in a tuxedo.

Before you lecture us about enabling these "Events" cynical fan, please remember, to many people stuff like this is funny. If it were not, why would there be a continuous flood of these spoof videos popping up.

Just the sight of a 7ft man not exactly known for his speed and dexterity as a basketball player trying to do this and do it reasonably well is enough to get a laugh...and a good reason to post this.

In Case You Missed It; Heat win series over Pacers

Well, so goes the premise of the Miami Heat flaming out in the second round of the NBA Playoffs.

The team with the most Top 5 players won, and won somewhat convincingly.

Dwayne Wade woke up and dropped 41 points, LeBron helped him out with 28 more to close out the Pacers 105-93. The win caps a 4-2 series victory and moves the Heat to the Eastern Conference finals where they await the winner of the Boston/Philadelphia series.

We, along with many others, categorized...well okay, openly pulled for the Heat's demise after they fell behind 2-1 in the series and showed signs of imploding. They played the whole series without spoke #3 Chris Bosh and played Game 6 without a suspended Udonis Haslem.

This is the part where we begin tuning out the endless, 4-month long NBA Playoff season, mostly because outside the Oklahoma City Thunder, none of the other teams are even remotely interesting.

Well that, and there are other things to do during the summer than worry about a basketball/playoff season that won't end until July.

Here are your highlights:

DEVELOPING: Haslem and Pittman Suspended

From Stu Jackson his own self...

Miami Heat center Dexter Pittman has been suspended three games without pay for striking the neck and shoulders of Indiana guard Lance Stephenson, and Miami forward Udonis Haslem has been suspended one game without pay for striking the head and shoulders of Indiana’s Tyler Hansbrough, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.

Both Pittman and Haslem had their Flagrant Foul Ones upgraded to Flagrant Foul Twos, as did Indiana’s Hansbrough, who struck the head of Miami’s Dwyane Wade on a foul that occurred shortly before Haslem's foul.

The incidents occurred during the Heat’s 115-83 victory over the Pacers on May 22 at American Airlines Arena in Miami.

Haslem will serve his suspension on Thursday when the Pacers host the Heat in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series. Pittman will begin serving his suspension in Game 6.

The HQ figured you had to give Haslem one game for his retaliation on the Wade hit, but Pittman's wink after knowing he popped someone in the throat was about right. Pittman had no history and could only get three...

Here's your recap on Pittman...
((HT: NBA on TNT/youtube))

Udonis Haslem... Hassan Chop...

Apparently, this is only a "Flagrant 1..."

Then, what is a "Flagrant 2...?"
Jus' axin... as is, we're sure Tyler Hansbrough...
((HT: NBA on TNT/nbaus3030))

Are The Miami Heat Losing It? Wade And Spoelstra In Heated Argument

Wasn't this suppose to be the year Miami's big three, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh win the NBA championship?  Wasn't the NBA playoffs suppose to be an unresistant path to coronation?

The Indiana Pacers must not have been on commissioner David Stern's e-mail list. 

Thursday night the Pacers pounced the Miami Heat 94-75 to go up 2-1 in the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinal series.

In the third quarter Dwyane Wade and Heat head coach ErickSpoelstra were caught by the cameras in a heated discussion during a timeout. 



Dwyane Wade finished the game going 2-13 from the field with five points. 

Spoelstra down played the confrontation with Wade telling reporters it's the least of his concerns.

It doesn't look good for the Miami Heat right now.

**Phil's note**---Can you say implosion? We aren't sure who is more upset about this: The Heat team or the higher ups at the 4-letter (ESPN).

This has the potential of a programming executives nightmare. Imagine an Indiana/Oklahoma City NBA Finals. Great basketball, but what about the ratings?

As we all know the programmers panic if they don't have either LA, New York, Chicago or Boston in any sports finals. Unless it is a high profile team like the Heat, whom ESPN has pretty much worshipped since the arrival of LeBron Choke...I mean LeBron James.

((Yes, we know Boston is still alive and kicking. We're guessing the programmers are praying to the statue of Red Auerbach for the old geezers to make it to the finals))

You can be damn skippy...or John Skipper if you work at ESPN that Erik Spoelstra is fired if and/or when the Heat lose this series. And you can also bet that it will all be blamed on the absence of Chris Bosh rather than the crappy performance of 2 of the top 5 players in the league (That's you LeBron and DWade).

They may still recover and win this series, but it sure doesn't appear on the surface that the Heat have the cojones or interest in putting up a fight. We'll wait before calling them D.O.A, because trailing 2-1 is hardly a death sentence, but things sure aren't looking too good.

OSG High: Boomer Makes Backboard Go Boom

((HT: WISH-TV))

With the Pacers out of town last night, the team mascot went over to do some of his standard tricks at a local high school game...

Vandalism ensued...
((HT: smilecontagiously7))


No word on whether or not the Pacers will reimburse New Palestine High for their trouble. Also, the HQ has no idea who won the game with Triton Central since the game was moved to the school's other gym.