A preseason game, on the road and at Charlotte typically wouldn’t garner very much attention whatsoever.
This one, however, does.
George Hill and Lance Stephenson at a local basketball event in Indy this past summer.
The Pacers conclude a two-game road trip and the preseason tonight in Charlotte, against a familiar face.
It’ll be the first time Lance Stephenson will turn his head and look across the floor at what was all he knew for four years. The Pacers — Larry Bird, specifically — took a chance on the Brooklyn bred shooting guard who had completed one year at the University of Cincinnati.
“Brooklyn bred now I’m out N.C./Me and Kemba in the backcourt, (guys) are dead meat.”
After being selected by the Pacers, Stephenson stayed away from team facilities until a New York case was resolved. Then, Bird guaranteed the second rounders contract because he believed in the young man. Two years in, Bird said at the usual end-of-the-year press conference that Stephenson was the team’s best player. Everybody laughed that day.
Not Bird. And not Lance.
Stephenson made huge strides in his four years with the Pacers, and still has a ways to go. He’s beginning to understand who he is, what he stands for, and what kind of player he can be in the NBA. He’s an All-Star caliber player, and it beat him up last February when the Eastern Conference coaches passed on selecting him as a reserve for the team.
To the detriment of the team, he took it out on those coaches whenever the team played against them (See: two triple-doubles against Boston). He competed every night. There was never any worry whether Lance would be up for a March game, one of more than a dozen during their busiest month. Yes, he stole rebounds from teammates and got too amp’d frequently. He led the team in both rebounds (7.2) and assists (4.6) in 2013, and was third on the team in points per game (13.8). That’s a gaping hole that the Pacers, no matter how they try, won’t be able to fill this season.
Then, the loss of Paul George, who suffered a horrific right-leg injury, stung even more.
Despite Bird and the Pacers sticking by Stephenson when he made foolish and immature mistakes, Stephenson (and maybe more so, his agent) turned their back on the team last July during free agency.
Stephenson wanted to stay, but he wanted to get paid for exceeding his pay grade the last few years and get what someone of his talent commands.
Bird had a number in mind, and stuck to it. He said that from the very beginning. He wasn’t going to risk the future of the franchise; he just couldn’t. Instead, Stephenson (and his agent) signed for more money upfront, $18 guaranteed over two seasons with a $9 million team option.
And for the life of me (and NBA minds much, much smarter than I am), I still can’t process why Stephenson signed a deal with a team option in year three. He’s betting on himself taking a shorter deal than the five-year, $44 million the Pacers offered, but with the new TV deal kicking in after two seasons, should he stay on course mentally, he’ll be vastly underpaid. (He left for a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars, not millions.)
“I be getting money ’til I fall out!” Stephenson rapped in his freestyle hit over the summer.
As the Pacers and Hornets square off Thursday night, again, there’s no real intrigue. As the battered Pacers take the floor with just one usual starter (Roy Hibbert) due to injuries, all they can think about is getting guys healthy so they can continue to work. They have a ways to go getting comfortable playing together, finding lineups and combinations that work, and most of all, putting their best players on the floor.
Paul George will be out for a while, we know that. (He did show an encouraging sign this week by putting shots up.) David West’s suffered a bad sprain that’ll likely keep him out for weeks; George Hill’s left knee has swelled up considerably after he bumped knees in Tuesday’s game at Minnesota; C.J. Watson has a sore foot, as does Rodney Stuckey.
Stephenson will also sit out Thursday night due to a groin injury.
With the Pacers in Stephenson’s neck of the woods, George Hill, Ian Mahinmi, Roy Hibbert, and newcomer Shayne Whittington had dinner with Born Ready, as did the great Heather Denton (Director of Player Relations).
“Love Indiana, Imma miss ‘em good days”
Dinner with @Dedemarie31 @Whittington21 @George_Hill3 @ianmahinmi n @StephensonLance. Glad for him n his fam in Char pic.twitter.com/Eu8JlEitgc
— Roy Hibbert (@Hoya2aPacer) October 23, 2014
Stephenson grew up with those guys, and that surely had to be a fun dinner conversation full of memories and laughs. Stephenson is onto a new chapter.
“Charlotte Hornets, MJ, that’s the new wave”