http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...tes/index.html
For Jamaal Tinsley, the best thing about the NBA was the next game, 48 minutes to define yourself anew no matter the past. But after seven years of crafting an image as a hard-nosed, relentless distributor and tenacious defender in Indiana, the next game never came.
The Pacers sat their starting point guard out for all of last season in a largely successful attempt to turn the final page on an era that began with title hopes and ended on the police blotter.
"It was difficult not being able to wake up and go to work," Tinsley said. "My son would ask, 'I don't see you on TV anymore; what happened?' I would tell him, 'Things happen, son. Eventually I'll get back.'"
About to gain an open roster spot with Allen Iverson's quick exit, the Grizzlies proved Tinsley correct, signing him to a one-year contract in mid-November. While re-acclimating to the NBA hasn't come quickly for him, it has come. After playing a token 11 minutes over his first four games, Tinsley has seen his court time, and impact, steadily increase. He's averaging 24.6 minutes, 9.6 points and 4.8 assists over his last five games.
"The hardest part is getting my timing back," said Tinsley, who is now 31. "I'm just trying to get into the flow of the game and help these young guys out ... [to let] them know it's a long season. I missed being around a bunch of guys joking, the different personalities and backgrounds."
It's been a long time since he could smile around an NBA setting. Weary from a string of off-court incidents that began in late 2006 and included his involvement in a pair of shootings (neither of which saw Tinsley disciplined by the law or his team) plus a fight at a local bar (for which he agreed to perform community service), Larry Bird and Co. banished the former Iowa State star last season from all but the team's training facility. The move was the final piece in a process in which the team divested itself of Jermaine O'Neal, Stephen Jackson and Ron Artest after the infamous Palace brawl unraveled a team that had won 61 games in 2003-04.
Unable to trade the oft-injured and trouble-ridden point guard, the Pacers also could not reach an agreement with Tinsley on a contract buyout until this summer, complicated as it was by the $6.75 million he was owed last season and the two years and $15 million he had coming to him after.
"It was a learning process," said Tinsley. "I don't have a perfect answer for what went wrong. Everybody makes mistakes. They didn't want me to be a part of them and I didn't want to be a part of them. Eventually you just have to move along."
And so he did. Tinsley spent the long months in limbo mixing in workouts when not accompanying his soon-to-be 6-year-old son to school while patiently waiting for a deal that would restart his career.
"Mentally it was tough," he admitted. "I had to come to terms with the idea that if this is it, this is it. But I'd been blessed to play seven years in the NBA; some guys never make it past a year. But the game has been good to me. I made a lot of money off of it and I've been able to use basketball to get what I could out of the game.
"But it's a game, and I wasn't going to let it break me. I got to see my son and my family more, and I was ready for anything."
And while some may assert that a job with the Grizzlies is the definition of anything, Tinsley seems comfortable with whatever role he can carve in Memphis each night.
"There was no real talk about [my role," he says. "I'm healthy, I'm back at my college weight and I'm just here trying to help the ballclub win games."
And should he fail in that mission on one night, he can take comfort in the knowledge that there will be be a next game.
I am happy for him and hope he turns his life around. Had to laugh at "tenacious defender"
I am all about the "second chance"
For Jamaal Tinsley, the best thing about the NBA was the next game, 48 minutes to define yourself anew no matter the past. But after seven years of crafting an image as a hard-nosed, relentless distributor and tenacious defender in Indiana, the next game never came.
The Pacers sat their starting point guard out for all of last season in a largely successful attempt to turn the final page on an era that began with title hopes and ended on the police blotter.
"It was difficult not being able to wake up and go to work," Tinsley said. "My son would ask, 'I don't see you on TV anymore; what happened?' I would tell him, 'Things happen, son. Eventually I'll get back.'"
About to gain an open roster spot with Allen Iverson's quick exit, the Grizzlies proved Tinsley correct, signing him to a one-year contract in mid-November. While re-acclimating to the NBA hasn't come quickly for him, it has come. After playing a token 11 minutes over his first four games, Tinsley has seen his court time, and impact, steadily increase. He's averaging 24.6 minutes, 9.6 points and 4.8 assists over his last five games.
"The hardest part is getting my timing back," said Tinsley, who is now 31. "I'm just trying to get into the flow of the game and help these young guys out ... [to let] them know it's a long season. I missed being around a bunch of guys joking, the different personalities and backgrounds."
It's been a long time since he could smile around an NBA setting. Weary from a string of off-court incidents that began in late 2006 and included his involvement in a pair of shootings (neither of which saw Tinsley disciplined by the law or his team) plus a fight at a local bar (for which he agreed to perform community service), Larry Bird and Co. banished the former Iowa State star last season from all but the team's training facility. The move was the final piece in a process in which the team divested itself of Jermaine O'Neal, Stephen Jackson and Ron Artest after the infamous Palace brawl unraveled a team that had won 61 games in 2003-04.
Unable to trade the oft-injured and trouble-ridden point guard, the Pacers also could not reach an agreement with Tinsley on a contract buyout until this summer, complicated as it was by the $6.75 million he was owed last season and the two years and $15 million he had coming to him after.
"It was a learning process," said Tinsley. "I don't have a perfect answer for what went wrong. Everybody makes mistakes. They didn't want me to be a part of them and I didn't want to be a part of them. Eventually you just have to move along."
And so he did. Tinsley spent the long months in limbo mixing in workouts when not accompanying his soon-to-be 6-year-old son to school while patiently waiting for a deal that would restart his career.
"Mentally it was tough," he admitted. "I had to come to terms with the idea that if this is it, this is it. But I'd been blessed to play seven years in the NBA; some guys never make it past a year. But the game has been good to me. I made a lot of money off of it and I've been able to use basketball to get what I could out of the game.
"But it's a game, and I wasn't going to let it break me. I got to see my son and my family more, and I was ready for anything."
And while some may assert that a job with the Grizzlies is the definition of anything, Tinsley seems comfortable with whatever role he can carve in Memphis each night.
"There was no real talk about [my role," he says. "I'm healthy, I'm back at my college weight and I'm just here trying to help the ballclub win games."
And should he fail in that mission on one night, he can take comfort in the knowledge that there will be be a next game.
I am happy for him and hope he turns his life around. Had to laugh at "tenacious defender"
I am all about the "second chance"
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