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  • Paul George Could Miss Next NBA Season

    “It was difficult to watch the injury that Paul George sustained,” Adam Silver, Commissioner of the National Basketball Association, said in a statement released on Saturday, echoing sentiments felt by spectators, coaches, and players alike.

    The Pacers’ All-Star’s injury, which occurred during Team USA’s exhibition game in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center Friday night, happened when George leaped to contest a fast-break lay-up by James Harden in the fourth quarter and smashed his leg against the bottom of the backboard stanchion.

    Yahoo! Sports reports that he underwent successful surgery to repair the open tibia-fibula fracture at Sunrise Hospital, and that Dr. David Silverberg, Dr. Joseph Yu, and USA Basketball team physician Riley Williams were present for the surgery.

    Doctors estimate that a full recovery could take as long as 18 months, which would sideline George for the 2014-2015 NBA season.

    George’s injury has caused widespread reaction around the NBA community, with players tweeting their support for the Pacers’ All-Star and many questioning the validity of NBA stars playing for Team USA during the off-season.

    Team USA head coach Mike Krzyewski said, “Anything can happen anywhere, a lot of things happen. Tonight it happened during a basketball game. We need to take care of that. It doesn’t mean it’ll happen again and again and again; it means that it happened right now.”

    Indiana Pacers President Larry Bird released a statement saying, “Our first thoughts are with Paul and his family. It is way too early to speculate on his return as the No. 1 priority for everyone will be his recovery. Our initial discussions with our doctors and the doctors in Las Vegas have us very optimistic. We are hopeful at some point next week Paul will return to Indianapolis to continue his recovery.

    “We still support USA Basketball and believe in the NBA’s goals of exposing our game, our teams and players worldwide. This is an extremely unfortunate injury that occurred on a highly-visible stage, but could also have occurred anytime, anywhere.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Dick Bavetta Officiates 2,633 NBA Games Straight

    During the Brooklyn Nets vs. New York Knicks game Wednesday night, NBA referee Dick Bavetta officiated his 2,633rd consecutive regular season game, which beat MLB Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripkin Jr.’s long-standing record for the longest back-to-back participation in an American professional sporting event.

    Richard T. “Dick” Bavetta, 74, got his start as an NBA referee in 1975, and he has never missed an assigned game since. He began officiating after his brother Joe, a ref for the American Basketball Association at the time, convinced him that it would be a good career. Bavetta was a stock broker on Wall Street during those days, and began officiating games between fellow brokers in the Wall Street League, played at New York’s Downtown Athletic Club.

    Bavetta went on to referee high school games, before moving on to the Continental Basketball Association. In the mid-1960s, for nine years straight he was rejected during NBA referee tryouts, mainly due to his small, unimposing stature, though was finally hired on in 1975. His debut was on December 2, 1975 at Madison Square Garden in an NBA game between the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics. He soon became seen as a referee of the lowest tier, and led the league in technical fouls and ejections called.

    Bavetta eventually went on to become the highest paid ref in the NBA, raking in about $200,000 a year. His most well-known game was between the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics in the 1980’s. Celtics forward Larry Bird and 76ers guard Julius Erving began to strangle each other and were ejected by Bavetta.

    Here’s the clip:

    Commenting on what his record means to him, Bavetta said, “Well it means that I am here and alive and happy. And it doesn’t end here as they say. After tonight there is another game. That is what we do. I am just blessed that the ironman streak has been broken here (at Madison Square Garden), I couldn’t ask for something any better.”

    Regarding any plans for retirement, Bavetta said, “I can’t think of any reason unless it’s an act of God with weather problems and things like that, but I’ve been blessed by the good Lord above with good health. So that has enabled me to stay healthy over the years and I think it’s symbolic of our profession.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons