{"id":361608,"date":"2025-12-21T02:08:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T02:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/361608\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T02:08:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T02:08:21","slug":"james-wiseman-hopes-to-seize-opportunity-in-nba-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/361608\/","title":{"rendered":"James Wiseman Hopes To Seize Opportunity In NBA Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Wiseman<\/a> admits being devastated when the Pacers decided to waive him in October, and he hopes to make a strong impression as he returns to the team, even if it may be temporary, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wiseman\u2019s latest opportunity comes via the hardship exception, which Indiana used to sign him to a 10-day contract<\/a> earlier today to provide front court depth. He was immediately placed on the active roster for tonight\u2019s game at New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been in California, working out,\u201d coach Rick Carlisle said. \u201cHe\u2019s been finding pickup games out there. We worked him out early this morning. He looks great. He\u2019s not in NBA game shape by any stretch, no one can be, but for somebody in his situation, he\u2019s got the best head start you can probably have.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Dopirak explains, Wiseman was the victim of a numbers crunch that led to his early-season release. He was the starting center October 25 against Memphis, marking his first game since tearing his Achilles tendon on opening night of the 2024\/25 season, but the Pacers needed to open a roster spot to sign a guard after Andrew Nembhard<\/a>, T.J. McConnell<\/a> and Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> all got hurt. They couldn\u2019t afford the luxury of keeping four centers on the roster and decided to part with Wiseman.<\/p>\n

He flew back to Indianapolis after receiving the news and talked with family members to work out his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as it happened, my mom came down, my family came down,\u201d Wiseman said. \u201cI was able to grieve for a little bit. Get that out. You can\u2019t suppress that type of stuff. But as soon as I landed I got in the weight room and used all my anger and kind of worked out. Just trying to get all that out. I just kept working ever since then. I haven\u2019t stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

His relentless training took him to Irvine, California, where he played in pickup games over the past three weeks. His chance to return to the league came when backup center Tony Bradley<\/a> suffered a fracture on the tip of his thumb. This time Indiana needed help in the middle, and Wiseman got a call on Thursday to meet the team in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Dopirak notes that Wiseman may not see much playing time over the next 10 days, as Jay Huff<\/a> and Isaiah Jackson<\/a> handle the bulk of center minutes. Bradley believes he\u2019ll be able to play with a splint on his thumb, even though it limits his ability to shoot and handle the ball.<\/p>\n

Wiseman indicated that he\u2019ll be grateful for any playing time he gets, along with the chance to prove to the Pacers and any other teams who may be watching that he\u2019s still worthy of a roster spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI motivated myself knowing there was going to be another way around,\u201d Wiseman said. \u201cSo you just gotta keep working and stay ready. \u2026 I\u2019m gonna go out there and play my (expletive) hardest. Leave it all out there on the floor. Whatever they want me to do I\u2019m gonna do it. Still enjoy it at the same time and go out there and just play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Wiseman admits being devastated when the Pacers decided to waive him in October, and he hopes to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,734,590,85,169668],"class_list":{"0":"post-361608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-james-wiseman","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tony-bradley"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}