Rakeem Christmas has spent the majority of this season away from the Pacers. After training camp and then the preseason, both Christmas and second-year forward Shayne Whittington were assigned to the the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the franchise’s NBA D-League affiliate. They have both returned multiple times.
After Monday’s overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Christmas said goodbyes to many of his Pacers teammates before making the two-hour drive north to Fort Wayne by himself.
And Christmas, who the Pacers acquired in a trade with the Cavs over the summer, has done quite well in the D-League. On Friday, he was named a D-League All-Star. The D-League All-Star game will be played up in Toronto on Sat., Feb. 13 at 2:00 p.m. ET (NBA TV) as part of the NBA’s All-Star weekend.
“It means a lot,” he said. “I get to go out there and perform for the Mad Ants and the Pacers, and just got out there and have fun. I’ve never been out there to an All-Star event so it should be fun.”
Appearing in 25 games this season with the Mad Ants, Christmas is averaging 15.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game. He’s one of eight current NBA players, including former Pacer Jeff Ayres, now of the Los Angeles Clippers, to be named D-League All-Stars.
Christmas and Whittington each were in town this pass week, but not together. Christmas’ visit was second, as he joined the team on Friday, Jan. 29th. He was around the team for two practices and two games.
“They just told me to keep doing what I’m doing,” Christmas said of his conversations with Pacers coach Frank Vogel and Team President Larry Bird. “Go out there and play hard and everything will be all right.”
The Pacers are keeping close tabs on Whittington and Christmas, with a team official at nearly every game.
“They are working their tails off,” Vogel said last week. “It’s a little bit of a reward for all of their hard work and their success to have them with us. … And to keep them up to speed with what we’re doing. It doesn’t help them to be away from us that long so they can get just a taste of the wrinkles of the offensive sets and the defensive coverages that we’re working with so that when we do need them, they’re up to speed.”