Aug 1, 2014; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Team USA guard Paul George is carted off the floor on a gurney after suffering a lower leg injury during the USA Basketball Showcase at Thomas & Mack Center.
Aug 1, 2014; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Team USA guard Paul George is carted off the floor on a gurney after suffering a lower leg injury during the USA Basketball Showcase at Thomas & Mack Center. REUTERS

The cliché goes, it is not how you fall down but more importantly about the way you get back on your feet again.

Yahoo! Sports reports that Indiana Pacers all-star small forward Paul George hopes to defy odds and be able to take his high flying back act to the NBA court this season. This comes as the 2010 no. 10 pick is rehabbing his gruesome leg injury.

''All I can do at this point is sleep, watch TV and lay down, so it's tough for me. I'm used to being active, lifting weights, being in the gym,'' George told reporters at a news conference in Inidana. ''At the same time, I want to be part of this team. The last thing I want to do is feel like I'm not part of this team because I'm out. I'm holding out hope, just personally, because I want to be back.''

Just barely two weeks removed from a freak injury that many speculated to be a career ending injury, George remains hopeful he can contribute to the cause of the Pacers this season. Indiana reached the eastern conference finals in the past two years and both succumbed to the Miami Heat. With the recent departure of Lance Stephenson to the Charlotte Hornets and the injury of George, many are speculating that it would be a better alternative for the team to rebuild.

After being favorites in the eastern conference last year, the Pacers unraveled in the final months of the season and fumbled in the playoffs needing 7 games to finish the Atlanta Hawks, 6 games to oust the up and coming Washington Wizards and eventually lose out to Miami yet again. George just like the Pacers are underdogs once again, and in the past, the defensive stalwart blossomed in the underdog tag.

The young superstar was a late pick in his draft class after coming out of Presno State. In his freshman year, he was a revelation in the series against the Chicago Bulls, tasked at times to guard fellow all-star Derrick Rose. By his third year, he was named the NBA's Most Improved Player and by last year he was already a starter for the eastern conference all-stars.

George was injured in a team scrimmage for Team USA when his right leg rammed a basketball stanchion. He relayed that once he saw bone sticking out of the leg, he knew that the injury was a freak one. The 24-year-old dunker said he has also watched the replay of the accident and plans never to take a second look. Physicians relayed that the player who changed his number this year to number 13 will make a full recovery but it will take the full calendar of the NBA season to get back into old form. George hopes to change those odds.

The doctors placed pins in the star athlete's knees and ankles to support a rod that was placed on the injured leg that was broken into two pieces. Three days later, he was now in crutches and rehabilitating in his home in Indianapolis.