Paul George Hyperextends His Knee in Preseason Game in Atlanta
Photo via Atlanta Hawks Broadcast
It wouldn’t be a 76ers season without an injury scare. On a day when Joel Embiid was ruled out of the rest of the preseason and declared he might never play another back-to-back, here we are just after witnessing star off-season acquisition, Paul George, leave last night’s game with a left knee injury.
It appears George hyperextended almost halfway through the second quarter of last night’s preseason game against the Atlanta Hawks. It occurred on a play where George was defending Atlanta’s Jalen Johnson. Johnson was attacking George’s left side and bumped him off with his off-arm. George jumped back and planted his left foot at an odd angle and hyperextended his leg.
Hyperextensions can be no-joke injuries and can keep players out for a long time, they are also some of the more tricky injuries when it comes to gauging a timeline for return. On one hand, they can be mild and only sideline players for about a week, or they can lead to full-on bone bruises or even damage ligaments like the ACL, MCL, and PCL. A bone bruise could sideline him for a few weeks to a month, and a more extreme ligament tear could leave him in jeopardy of playing this season. Embiid hyperextended his knee in 2021 which led him to miss 3-weeks while he recovered from a bone bruise.
The most concerning part of this entire injury is that it occurred in George’s left knee. George had surgery on that knee in 2018 to fix a partially torn tendon which made him miss 8 weeks. Ever since that surgery, he has had lingering knee problems. These knee problems are what kept him out of a lot of games while he was on the Clippers. Later in March of 2023, he sprained his left knee and this kept him for the entirety of the Playoffs that year. He also missed the playoffs the year before because of pain and soreness in that knee.
George will receive an MRI in the coming days, hopefully, that will reveal no structural damage. I would not be surprised if George misses a few weeks for precautionary reasons, but again, this is one of the harder injuries to gauge. Whatever the MRI says, this will be something that will linger throughout the season and something the Sixers will have to keep an eye on and monitor.
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Nate Tramdaks
Nate is a Sophomore at La Salle studying finance. He closely follows the 76ers, has co-hosted his own 76ers podcast in the past, and has been writing for Syracuse University Sports.
