Paul George Discussed Zion Williamson's Shoe Breaking with Nike After Injury

After Duke Blue Devils phenom Zion Williamson suffered a Grade 1 right knee sprain as the result of blowing out one of his PG 2.5 shoes on Wednesday, Oklahoma City Thunder star Paul George wants to make sure that nothing like that ever happens with his signature shoe again.

George revealed to reporters on Thursday that he met with Nike officials to try to figure the cause of the malfunction, per ESPN's Royce Young: 

Per Young:

"First, I want to wish him all the best. I don't know the severity of the injury right now. We just wish him all the best through the recovery, if it is something severe. And honestly I'm just here for him through that time of being hurt.

"But outside of that I don't necessarily know what happened, how it happened. I talked to Nike to see what went wrong, what happened with the shoe and I take pride in that. My shoes have been a successful shoe not only in college but in the NBA. A lot of people have been in them, a lot of people have been wearing them. So I don't necessarily know, but it's never happened to my knowledge before. So that's tough."

"It hasn't happened to me as long as I've been in this shoe, we've made three generations going on four now of my shoe being successful, so I didn't necessarily feel any way about that part, the negative part of it."

George's first signature shoe, the PG1, debuted in January 2017. Unfortunately, the PG 2.5 fell apart on one of college basketball's biggest stages and to the sport's biggest star. 

Williamson was injured just 33 seconds into Duke's showdown with eighth-ranked North Carolina on Wednesday as he went down awkwardly when his left foot popped through his shoe:

He would not return to the game, leaving Mike Krzyzewski and Co. without one of their best players for nearly the entire 40-minute contest.

Duke would go on to fall to its archrival, 88-72.

Meanwhile, Williamson's shoe mishap became the biggest talking point of the game. As a result, Nike issued a statement on the matter, per Young: "We are obviously concerned and want to wish Zion a speedy recovery. The quality and performance of our products are of utmost importance. While this is an isolated occurrence, we are working to identify the issue." 

Action Network's Darren Rovell reported that Nike's stock had dropped more than 1 percent within the first 10 minutes of trading on Thursday.

According to Rovell, Williamson has a loss of value insurance policy that will pay him $8 million if he falls past the 16th pick in June's draft. Prior to to the injury, the 6'7", 285-pound forward was the presumptive No. 1 overall pick—and likely remains so even if he does not play another game for the Blue Devils.

Williamson is listed as day-to-day.