Kevin Durant Admits Paul George Injury Prompted Him To Withdraw From USA Basketball

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Oklahoma City Thunder star was slated to be the offensive focal point of USA Basketball this summer, but decided to withdraw from the team citing fatigue and a need to recuperate before the start of the 2014-15 NBA season.

However, it looks as if the horrific leg injury suffered by the Indiana Pacers' Paul George at a USA Basketball scrimmage this summer was the main reason why Durant decided to call it quits.

Here's Michael Lee of the Washington Post with the scoop:

A few days before he reached out to Krzyzewski, Durant watched Indiana Pacers forward Paul George break his right leg in a horrific collision with a basket stanchion during a Team USA basketball scrimmage in Las Vegas that convinced the reigning NBA MVP to withdraw from the FIBA World Cup.

“It took everything out of me seeing that,” Durant later told friend Randy Williams and a Nike executive at his camp of George. “Everything I had to play for Team USA, that injury stripped it away from me.” …

After Durant is shown reacting on court to what he called a “freak accident,” the scene shifts to conversation with Durant in which he says, “When you see something like that, so gruesome, in front of you, of course you’re going to think, ‘This could happen to me.’”

Durant's decision will be scrutinized one or the other by plenty of NBA pundits, however it was only human for the OKC Thunder's main building block to have his perspective changed by seeing such a grotesque injury.

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