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Whittington Hoping for Better Break

Pacers.com caught up with Pacers center Shayne Whittington at the 2014 Pacers Foundation Golf Outing presented by Katz Sapper & Miller held at Brickyard Crossing Golf Resort.

You've no doubt heard about the Pacers player who freakishly broke his leg while trying to block a shot in the off-season, jeopardizing his future.

Yeah, it's posing quite a challenge for Shayne Whittington.

Whittington snapped his fibula in his left leg in a workout on May 8, nearly three months before Paul George did the same in his right leg while playing an exhibition game for USA Basketball. For George, it means a long interruption to an established playing career, one he'll likely recover from and resume his All-Star ways. But for Whittington, it cast doubt on whether he would ever find a path to the NBA.

“At the time I was laying on the ground with a broken leg, I felt my career was over,” Whittington said before the Pacers' annual golf outing Thursday at Brickyard Crossing.

Whittington's NBA career has not yet begun, and time will tell if it ever does, but he appears likely to resume his career somewhere next season. He's working out with the Pacers this summer, and has a contract. It's not guaranteed until Jan. 1, but it's a start, and an opportunity.

For now, at least, he's one of the guys. He was among the four Pacers introduced to the golf participants on Thursday, sitting on a podium alongside C.J. Miles, Rodney Stuckey and Damjan Rudez, interviewed by television voice Chris Denari, and teased by coach Frank Vogel.

Vogel joked about Whittington's resemblance to Justin Timberlake, and threatened to make him dance in front of everyone.

“Should a coach ask a rookie on his first introduction if he'd put some dance moves on in front of the crowd?” Vogel asked. “Should a coach do that?”

Vogel didn't follow through, but the fact Whittington could have obliged means something. He's participating in open gym workouts, and while he's not 100 percent, he feels he's closing in on it.

Whittington is trying to find a place on a roster with 14 guaranteed contracts, including a surplus of power forwards and centers. Roy Hibbert, David West, Luis Scola, Ian Mahinmi and Lavoy Allen are more established, and unlikely to move aside for him. Whittington, though, appears to be more than just another warm body for training camp. And, he's accustomed to blooming behind schedule.

Baseball was his favorite sport while growing up in Paw Paw, Michigan, a town of 3,500 in the southwest portion of the state. A seven-inch growth spurt heading into his junior season forced a change in priorities, and by the time he grew into his 6-9 frame as a senior at tiny Lawrence High School, he was drawing some recruiting interest.

Some.

Western Michigan, just 20 minutes away, was the first to offer, and he called back from the parking lot before returning home from his recruiting visit to accept. He played sparingly as a freshman, redshirted, then gradually worked his way up to 16.1 and 8.9 rebounds as a senior, earning first-team all-MAC honors. He shot 52 percent from the field, hitting 40 percent of his jump shots, 76 percent from the foul line, and earned an invitation to the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in Portsmouth, Va. in April.

There, he boosted his stock enough that he was regarded as a possible second-round draft pick. The Draft Express website's report on the PIT said nobody in the three-game tournament improved their status as much as he did, by showing himself capable of playing the “stretch four” position. Whittington hit 10-of-22 three-pointers in the tournament, a dramatic improvement from college, when he hit 8-of-48 attempts. Although lacking the bulk to play effectively around the basket against NBA bodies – he's now 6-11, 237 – he shot well on the move and off the dribble.

Hearing he could go as high as late in the first round based on his PIT performance, he was preparing for NBA pre-draft workouts with great anticipation when he broke his left leg and tore a ligament in his left foot. He was jumping to try to block a shot – like George would do – when he collided with his opponent in mid-air. The other player landed on top of him, and snapped his fibula.

“I'll never forget the sound, that's for sure,” Whittington said.

So much for the draft. The Pacers, however, had seen enough to consider him worthy of a non-guaranteed contract, taking him away from a few other teams showing interest.

So here he is, working his way back into shape and looking for an entrance to a crowded roster. Already the game is faster than in college, and will only get that much faster when the veteran players report to camp.

“Right now it's a learning curve for me,” he said. “I see this as a redshirt kind of time. I'm going to try to get as much experience as I can while I'm here. I'm going to try to get in David West's head when he comes in and learn everything I can.”

He's seen and experienced enough, however, to believe he can play in the NBA.

“Of course,” he said, “as long as I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. As long as I don't play outside myself and I'm not doing anything stupid, of course.”