Mike James ready for a second chance
Suns guard Mike James didn’t want a regular job. All he wanted was to keep playing basketball.
Since going undrafted in 2012 out of Lamar University, James has spent his first five professional seasons overseas with teams in Croatia, Israel, Italy, Spain and Greece.
After two seasons in the Euroleague, the point guard played for the Suns in the NBA Summer League in 2015 — averaging 12.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.7 steals in Las Vegas.
In a fleeting attempt to open eyes, he scored 32 points in a championshipgame loss to San Antonio, the most scored by any player during the 2015 summer league.
But James did not receive an offer from the Suns or any other NBA team. And when the summer league was over, the 6-foot-1 Oregon native was headed back overseas.
“I just kept playing basketball,” James said. “I kept getting paid for it, and it’s better than having a regular job so I just kept playing.”
James, 26, is back with the Suns' summer league team, with games beginning Friday in Las Vegas. Fresh off a 2016-17 campaign with Greek Cup champion Panathinaikos, James feels like he’s finally ready to take his game to the next level.
“I feel more mature, more seasons under my belt,” he said. “I’m basically the same just more mature and I read the game a little bit better.”
At the Suns’ Tuesday practice, the crafty point guard was having his way dribbling around Josh Jackson, Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss.
James, who began his collegiate career at Eastern Arizona College, feels like a seasoned veteran on a roster filled with first- and second-year players — despite the fact that he is a rookie himself.
“We’re real young, real athletic,” James said. “The (young guys) have a lot of energy. It’s a lot of potential. Everyone can dribble; Chriss, Bender they’re tall but they can bring it up and shoot 3s, so it’s a lot of versatility and it’s going to be fun.”
Despite the fact this will be the second summer league for James, he’ll have something in 2017 he did not have two seasons prior — a contract.
The Suns officially signed James on Monday, adding depth to a guard position that consists of Devin Booker, Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, the injured Tyler Ulis and the newly drafted Davon Reed.
“It shows confidence in me. It shows that they want me to be here and that’s good to know,” James said. “It’s good to have that feeling going into something, it kind of puts you more at ease going into it feeling like you have to prove something rather than just continuing to get better.”
And despite five seasons playing basketball in five different countries, James never wavered from doing something that matters a great deal to him — playing basketball.
“I tried not to think about it,” he said. “This summer it just seemed real possible after the season I had overseas, and I wanted to take advantage of it and try it out for this year.”
James intends to take the same mind-set into Las Vegas as he did in 2015. If he plays his game, he’ll show what he can do.
“I try to just go out there and play,” James said. “If you go out and try to make everything perfect, it’s probably going to be imperfect. I try to be as comfortable as possible.”