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.
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. Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY

Paul George suffered a freak injury during the intra-squad training of the members of the Team USA pool for the 2014 FIBA World Cup of Spain on Friday night. The Indiana Pacers’ franchise player broke his lower leg in half in what would be the most gruesome injuries in basketball in recent memory.

IBTimes Australia writers have already made a recap of the incident and also how the league reacted to it and this article won’t delve into those but rather would compare George’s horrific spill to other players who suffered an equally devastating or worse injuries.

Fair warning: before reading the rest of the article make sure you haven’t had your breakfast/lunch/dinner yet. Some of the images are so graphic and gross that it will make you puke. And we start with the most similar…

Kevin Ware – guard, Louisville

(YouTube/FATALandDEADLY)

Shaun Livingston – guard, Los Angeles Clippers

(YouTube/ misterbasketduke)

Andrew Bogut - center, Milwaukee Bucks

(YouTube/MyVid3oBlog)

Kyle Bullinger – center, Weber State

(YouTube/kd7und)

Ware’s injury is similar to George’s in a sense that it came from a same basketball play: Ware and George were the defenders in this play and was challenging a shot of an offensive player. The difference was that Ware sort of slipped before breaking his leg in half while George hit what was supposed to be the support post to protect the players.

The other plays were all good basketball plays too—Livingston off a steal on a fastbreak; Bogut running the break and being rewarded with a good pass for the easy dunk;and Bullinger going aggressive for an offensive rebound.

Like these four players, Paul George’s injury will be remembered not only because of the gravity of the damage but because of the graphic images seen by millions on social media and the internet.

The good news is that all of the injured players in those videos have returned to competitive basketball. The bad news is that most of them have never returned to the level of play they werein before getting hit with the horrific injury.

Paul George – forward, Team USA/Indiana Pacers

(YouTube/NBA Highlights)

Will Paul George bounce back from this injury? The Indiana Pacers sure hope so as the franchise is set to pay him $15.93 million in the 2014-2015 season—just the first of a five-year deal worth nearly $92M.