A cameo appearance one night, major minutes the next. No baskets in one game, half a dozen in another.

It’s a familiar scenario for many players who make a living in the NBA – the ones whose names never show up on the marquee alongside Kobe, LeBron, Dwyane, Shaq or any of the other special few who dominated the star-studded league.

They may not be living the dream quite the way they would have envisioned it during their high school or college days. But for some with the proper perspective, they are living a dream nonetheless.

Just ask Jake Voskuhl, a 6-11 backup center for the Bobcats.

“When I first got in the league it was like a dream come true,” he said. “When I first got here I was kind of happy just to be here.”

He still feels the same way, though he’s had his share of ups and downs along the way.

Voskuhl, 29, played college basketball at Connecticut and helped the Huskies win the 1999 NCAA championship before starting a pro career that now spans seven seasons.

He started out in Chicago, playing only 16 games in an injury-marred rookie season, and then spent four seasons with Phoenix before being traded to the Bobcats in August of 2005.

His numbers along the way have never been gaudy, and his career-best season averages were 5.2 points and 6.6 rebounds in Phoenix in 2003-04.

He has been a regular in the Bobcats rotation and has appeared in 60 of Charlotte’s 65 games this season, averaging 3.7 points and 3.3 rebounds.

Voskuhl has been on the proverbial roller coast along the way – his minutes have ranged from a high of 36 to a low of three this season – but he says he is at peace with his role and doesn’t worry about making it something it’s not. And he attributes that comfort level to his strong faith.

“For me it’s just kind of my dependence on the Lord,” he said. “When I go out there I have a mindset that I’m not going out there for myself. I’m not going out to put up big numbers, I’m doing out there to glorify and honor the Lord. That’s kind of what my attitude is. Obviously you want to play well. You want to make buckets and get rebounds. You want to do those things.

“But what’s really helped is, I just out there to honor the Lord and that’s the kind of balance that helps me keep my head on straight and not get too up or too down, to just kind of stay on that even keel. The ups and downs are a part of basketball. You have some players you draw up plays for. It’s like, ‘We’re going to get you this, this is your play,’ and you’re going to get a consistent number of shots per game.

“At this point in my career they’re not drawing up plays for me,” he added. “It’s not a negative; they’re just not doing that. I think that’s one of those things where that’s part of it. But I also think it goes back to, sometimes you just have to trust the Lord. I go out there and play as hard as I can and do what I can do.”

There have been moments, from the outset of his career, that might have left some players frustrated and cursing fate. The first-season injury. A missed opportunity to play in Washington with current Bobcats ownership partner Michael Jordan. A last-minute trade from the Bulls to the Suns, just as his second season was about to begin.

“I had foot surgery (after his senior season at Connecticut) and before the (Bulls) season I was out for like six or seven months,” he said. “And I had gotten up to like 285, 290 pounds, way above where I am now at 250. I thought I needed to gain weight to go against these guys, but I didn’t need to do that and was just slow and out of shape.”

He got his weight down and played well during the summer between his first and second seasons. He joined other players in Washington for summer play.

“Michael was making a comeback with the Wizards,” Voskuhl recalled. “I go down there and play. He ended up picking me and he put me on his team like every single time. We really played well together and he actually tried to trade for me. But Chicago was saying, ‘We’re going to give you a chance to play.’ They drafted Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry and you weren’t going to play because any spare minutes, those guys were going to get. I didn’t have a problem with it. I understood that.

“But (former Bulls general manager) Jerry Krause was like, I’ll never trade Jake Voskuhl to Washington.”

An icy relationship between Krause and Jordan apparently killed any chance of such a deal and for a while, it appeared Voskuhl would be back in Chicago for his second season. Then, the day before the season opened, he was sent to Phoenix.

It turned out to be a blessing.

“I found out about the trade in the morning and left for Phoenix that afternoon,” Voskuhl said. “When I got there to the hotel I found a note on my pillow that said, ‘Be ready to play tomorrow. You will.’

“I had like a career high in points, rebounds, everything – the very first game there. You go from a situation that was kind of a hopeless one to one where it was so promising. I ended up getting to play four years there and they treated me and my family very well.”

Then came the trade to Charlotte and a backup role, filling in for starting center Primoz Brezec and/or power forward Emeka Okafor. Brezec’s recent early-game foul problems and Okafor’s current injury have meant more playing time for Voskuhl and, in a game last week at Phoenix, season highs of 13 points and 13 rebounds.

He knows that neither the playing time nor the increased numbers will come every night, but he accepts that and seems to keep it, like other aspects of the game, in perspective.

“It’s different but I like it,” he said. “I’m just enjoying the game of basketball and I think that shows.

“It’s a blessing to do something that you love to do.”

Leonard Laye covered the NBA, ABA and college basketball for more than three decades for the Charlotte Observer and the old Charlotte News until his retirement from writing sports fulltime. He will write a regular column throughout the season for BobcatsBasketball.com for his second straight year.