Rakeem Christmas: A Walking Example of How Patience Pays Off
By Josh Padmore
It took a lot of patience from Rakeem Christmas to wait for his opportunity to finally come with the Indiana Pacers.
Rakeem Christmas, I applaud you for your patience and attitude. It must be hard for NBA players to sit on the bench and not play for so long. For Rakeem Christmas, the wait was especially long.
Christmas played in just one game as a rookie — the final game of the 2015-2016 regular season. A game that meant nothing for Indiana, who already locked up the 7th seed for the playoffs.
He wasn’t playing meaningful minutes for the Indiana Pacers this season until they played the Memphis Grizzlies on February 24th. Al Jefferson was out due to dental work, so Christmas got the nod as the backup center. He didn’t disappoint, posting 4 points and 5 rebounds in 14 minutes of action.
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From there, Christmas has taken his opportunity and ran with it. He’s played in 11 consecutive games, while Al Jefferson has played in just 4 of those 11 games. During that 11 game span, Christmas has averaged 3.4 points per game and 3.2 rebounds per game. He’s also connected on an impressive amount of free-throws, shooting 78.6% from the foul line.
His counting stats may not seem like much, but in his 11 games this season, he already made Indiana a better rebounding team when he is on the court.
Christmas has also gotten support from all of his teammates. Paul George even said that he’s thought Rakeem could help the Pacers for a long time now. Nate McMillan also told him throughout the season that his time would come.
Again, I think it needs to be well stated that Christmas waited a long time for this. This was huge for him, and for his career. If he continued to get DNP’s, it’d make his fight to stay in the league tougher.
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He still has plenty to prove, but I think he’s showing that he is an NBA player. This opportunity may have saved his career. You never know what happens.