Joel Embiid hits on a handful of topics, including his status as one of the best Twitter users in the NBA. USA TODAY Sports
Few NBA players can relate to the pain and frustration of the gruesome leg injury that Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward suffered earlier this season.
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Paul George is one of them.
After the two teams played Tuesday in Boston, George told reporters that he's remained in touch with Hayward over the past few months, offering him words of encouragement and advice during the rehabilitation process. George understands what Hayward is going through, he said, and has tried to help manage Hayward's expectations.
"The biggest thing was just letting him know what obstacles he was going to have to face with that injury," George told reporters after the Thunder's 100-99 loss. "I think it helped a bit, just helping him and giving him a heads-up of what to expect. But again, he's doing a lot better. I think at this point, he don't need me to give him encouraging words. He knows I've got his back."
Hayward suffered a dislocated left ankle and fractured tibia in the Celtics' season-opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers, which was also the former Utah Jazz star's first game with his new team. Though Hayward has provided encouraging updates of his rehab on social media, including videos of himself dribbling and shooting, coach Brad Stevens said definitively earlier this month that the 27-year-old will not play again this season.
The highs and lows of the rehabilitation process are all too familiar for George, who suffered a gruesome injury of his own in 2014. The five-time NBA All-Star broke his leg during a scrimmage with the U.S. basketball team and missed the entire season that followed.
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"That's one of the biggest things I told (Hayward), because I knew it was going to be frustrating, where you feel like you're getting better, you're about to turn that corner and then you're going to have some setbacks," George told reporters Tuesday. "That's part of doing so well, putting so much stress on it, that sometimes it's going to get sore, sometimes it's going to feel like you shouldn't have did something. It's all part of the process. You've got to build, go through some walls. You've got to build some confidence and trust that leg all over again."
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.
