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James Continuing His Game of Catch-Up with Pacers

Let's be honest about this. Joel James isn't likely to be playing in the NBA next season. The odds are he never will. But then he knows all about long odds.

The odds were against him being on the Pacers' Summer League team. The odds were against him getting a scholarship to North Carolina. Some would say the odds were against him even living this long.

The 6-foot-11, 280-pound center out of North Carolina will fly with the rest of the current and prospective Pacers to Orlando on Friday for Summer League play. He won't play much, as Rakeem Christmas and Shayne Whittington will get most of the minutes at center, but he understands and accepts his place. He's been playing catch-up on basketball courts since his sophomore season in high school, and believes he has more room for improvement than any of his current teammates.

Actually, more than anyone, period.

"More than anyone in the world, I think I have untapped potential," he said.

The gap between what James is and what he might become is why he's with the Pacers in the first place. It's also why he was the last player off the court following Thursday night's practice at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, after working with a coach on getting off high-arcing shots with either hand around the basket.

For now, the reality is that he just finished a college career in which he averaged 2.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots in 98 games. His career highs were 11 points and nine rebounds. He started just 10 games as senior, and surely went unnoticed by most fans in Indiana. He got in for two minutes against Villanova in the NCAA tournament championship game, contributing a defensive rebound and personal foul, and for two minutes earlier in the tournament against Indiana, hitting his only field goal attempt.

Those aren't stats normally associated with NBA hopefuls, but James isn't your typical prospect. He isn't your typical anything, really. His story is far too deep and complicated to be covered in a post-practice interview while he's standing off the end of the court sweating from the extra work he put in, but can found in a story on UNC's team website.

In short, he didn't begin playing basketball until he transferred to Dwyer High School in Palm Beach, Fla., as a 10th grader, and only then because a coach talked him into it. He had hardly ever touched a ball before that, even in neighborhood games, and had hardly paid attention to games on television. The eighth of 11 kids, he was expected to perform in the classroom above all else.

He paid his dues as a backup center on the varsity squad that first season, persevering amid the laughter and taunts that ultimately motivated him.

"I was terrible," he said. "I couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time. The first game I played, I was walking down the court by myself and tripped and fell, I was so nervous."

He loved it, though. If nothing else, it got him out of the house, which was good because his house happened to be next door to a crack house in one of the country's most dangerous neighborhoods. He saw dead bodies being zipped up into body bags as a grade schooler, heard gunfire on too many occasions while walking home and slept on a couch at night because his mother couldn't afford a bed for everyone. Basketball was a refuge, and a launching pad.

The finer elements of playing center – such as catching post feeds and dunking – continued to elude him into his junior season, but he developed rapidly that season. By the end of it he had attracted scholarship offers – a "plethora," he says – from several major programs, and took the one from North Carolina. He weighed 315 pounds then, but worked his way down to 265 his senior season to become more mobile.

He was Florida's Class 8A Player of the Year that season, when he averaged 14.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 3.4 blocks. Still, he was regarded as a project for an elite college program, and he remains one for a professional team.

He was a favorite of coaches and former players at North Carolina, though, for his earnestness and work ethic. Indianapolis native Eric Montross, now an analyst for the Tar Heels' radio broadcasts, became a primary mentor.

"He was definitely a presence," James said. "Every home game, I'd have a talk with him before I'd go warm up.

"He took me under his wing and guided me through the process of being a Carolina big man. Coach (Roy Williams) wasn't a big man, there's only so many things he can teach me. Another big man can show you the (subtle) things."

Bloomington native Sean May has worked with him in the summers, as have former NBA big men Brendan Haywood and Rasheed Wallace. He was playing pickup games with Wallace, in fact, shortly before joining the Pacers' summer camp. Wallace is 41 and hasn't played in an NBA game since 2013, but don't let that fool you.

"He can still go," James said. "Regardless of what people say, my man still has game. It's pretty impressive for a guy his age and a guy his size. He's still mobile. And they say the jumper is the last thing to go, and he's still got it."

James is still working on getting a jumper. In fact, he's working on everything. For now he's strictly a post player, a back-to-the-basket center. He's had to be reminded by Pacers coaches to roll to the basket after setting screens rather than popping out for a jump shot and he struggles to score in traffic around the basket, but he's got one major thing going for him: an NBA body.

"He's a big body," coach Nate McMillan said. "We want to be a better screening team this year and that's an emphasis with our summer league team. He's laid a couple of guys out. We want to make sure we use that body."

James, who has a degree in American History, realizes a big body isn't enough to get him into the NBA. His most realistic hope for next season is to wind up on a Development League team and continue a late-blooming career.

"I know coming in trying out for a team like this, I've been playing less than all these guys," he said. "My learning curve is a little bigger than theirs. Every day is a challenge for me. That's the way I approach it. Every day is a new opportunity. I shut my mouth and listen. Try to catch on as fast as I can."

He's accustomed to that. He's been playing catch-up his entire career, so what's another season of it? He remains optimistic, hopeful his skills will catch up to his size, strength and mobility.

"It just takes time," he said. "That's the main thing. One day it will click. And when it does, I'll be a bad man."

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