INDIANAPOLIS — James Wiseman remembers feeling stunned, a more than understandable reaction considering.
The now 24-year-old center was playing in his first shift in the first quarter of the first game of his first season as a member of the Indiana Pacers. He hadn’t been on the floor five minutes when he took and missed a wide open 3-pointer and started to back pedal.
As his teammates fought for the rebound, he briefly paused his reverse motion, flexing on his left leg as he considered breaking toward the ball. At that point he noticed something had gone wrong, looked down at his leg and then bent over as he turned around as if he was hoping stretching it out could fix it. It couldn’t, and after the Pacers committed a foul on the other end of the floor Wiseman motioned for Obi Toppin to carry him off the floor.
An Achilles tendon tear in Wiseman’s left leg was diagnosed the next day and he didn’t take the floor again in the 2024-25 season.
“It kinda shocked me a little bit,” Wiseman said. “I wanted to help this team out, play my role and do what I can for this team to win. But some stuff you can’t control. What you can do is respond.”
If Wiseman has learned nothing else in five NBA seasons, it’s how to respond from injury. He lost the end of his rookie season and his entire second year in the NBA to a knee injury. He’s appeared in more than 45 games in an NBA season just once since he was taken with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 draft. He knew what recovery would require and he did what he had to do.
Fast forward 11 months and Wiseman believes he’s in the best condition of his life. The Pacers traded him to the Raptors at the February deadline to open up a roster spot they ultimately used to pick up Tony Bradley for center depth in the postseason, but Toronto waived him and Wiseman was allowed to finish his rehab in Indiana. The Pacers saw enough positive during his rehab to bring him back on another one-year free agent contract, putting him in a four-man competition for the starting center job with Myles Turner having left for Milwaukee in free agency.
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“It’s 10 months of hard work,” Wiseman said. “Just taking it day by day. I’m just blessed to be out here playing the game.”
Wiseman’s holding on to a positive attitude despite how much opportunity he’s lost to injury in his career. Considered by some services to be the top recruit in the college freshman class of 2019 and a top five recruit by all of them, Wiseman played in just three college games at Memphis before he was declared ineligible. (Memphis coach Penny Hardaway helped pay for Wiseman’s family’s move from Nashville to Memphis before Hardaway was Memphis’ coach, but he was still considered a Memphis booster.) He still was taken No. 2 overall by the Warriors and averaged 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game as a rookie but missed time that season with a wrist injury before before a meniscus tear ended his season and kept him off the floor for the next 18 months. He’s had some positive flashes since, but was traded to the Pistons during their lean years, then allowed to walk in free agency.
However, when he tore his Achilles, he could take comfort in the idea that he’d been through one major injury, so he could recover from another one.
“It’s the longevity of the rehab,” Wiseman said. “Knowing it’s going to be a 10-month hard rehab after the previous injury I just had. Just being able to stay confident in who I am and just get back healthy, staying confident within the process. And taking it one day at a time. That’s how I got through it is taking it one day at a time.”
Wiseman’s approach to the rehab impressed the Pacers enough to decide it made sense to bring him back. They were in scramble mode after Turner left for the Bucks and looked to make up for their all-time leading shot blocker with depth. They added Jay Huff in a trade, but instead of looking for more talent on the free agent market, they brought back both Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson, who suffered an Achilles tendon tear just nine days after Wiseman did.
The Pacers liked what he saw from Wiseman last preseason before the injury and still believe there’s a player there worth investing in, but his approach made them feel safer in the investment.
“He’s still a great prospect,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s had an up-and-down five years with injuries and some other situations. We love him as a person. We love his size, his body type, athleticism, he rebounds the ball very well.”
Carlisle was impressed with how Wiseman maintained his explosion and even more impressed last week when the Pacers held a conditioning test that included a run in which players were pushed until they had to stop. Carlisle said Wiseman was one of the last players to drop out.
“For a guy that size he’s an amazing runner,” Carlisle said. “… You think about what he’s gone through with his rehab and everything else and this is a week before camp, he’s out there with some of our best conditioned wings and guards. That’s a strong statement.”
Wiseman has a tough fight for a rotation spot. Jackson’s rehab was also impressive and “aggressive” as Carlisle put it and he’s put on muscle to bulk up to 240 pounds. Jay Huff gives the Pacers a center with 3-point shooting range. Wiseman hit 81 3-pointers last season and Wiseman has hit 16 in his career.
But when Wiseman was injured, he wasn’t guaranteed to get another chance and he certainly wasn’t guaranteed to get one in Indiana. He’s earned the right to get that next chance.
“It’s having that resilience and having that integrity to push through every day,” Wiseman said. “In those 10 months I just kept my integrity and kept my character in tact and just worked hard every day.”
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers James Wiseman leaned on lessons from previous injuries in rehab
