[YAHOO] Rockets' James got a start like no one else

hope this hasn't been posted before...........

Rockets' James got a start like no one else
By Sean Deveney - SportingNews


As the NBA has gone more international, tales of globetrotting American players who persevere long enough to crack NBA rosters have become more common.

But perhaps no player has gone quite so far to land in the NBA as the Rockets' Mike James, who holds a unique distinction: He is believed to be the only NBA player who is a veteran of the Austrian League, having spent 15 games playing for St. Polten in the northeast corner of Austria in 1998.

"That was the lockout year, so there were no rookie camps, no tryouts, nothing," James says. "A lot of players were trying to go to Europe, and the bigger teams had too many Americans. I had to go where I could get a spot, and it wound up being Austria. And I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Indeed, James made the most of his time in St. Polten. He married his college girlfriend, Angela, in a town-wide celebration in October 1998. The festivities were paid for by the team -- Angela was taken by horse-drawn coach through the city while James rode in a Mercedes-Benz limousine. "It was incredible," James says. "They treated me like a king."

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Despite the royal treatment, James wanted to be in the NBA, a dream that seemed faint when he left Duquesne after four productive years. James found there was little NBA interest in him -- he was 6-2 and had played shooting guard in college. After his year in St. Polten, James moved to a French league, where he played for two years and tried to remake himself as a point guard. Finally, he drew interest from the Heat and cracked Miami's guard-starved roster in 2001-02, bouncing between the NBA and the CBA.

Since then, James has bounced to Boston and Detroit (winning a championship with the Pistons) and signed a three-year deal with the Bucks last summer. The Bucks dealt him to the Rockets at the trading deadline, though, and he has fit in well in Houston. Since the trade, he has averaged 12.2 points, 3.3 assists and just 1.2 turnovers, and the team, one of the league's hottest since January, has gone 12-6.

James' natural shooting guard skills, combined with his work to become a point guard, make him similar to backcourt mates Jon Barry, Bob Sura and David Wesley. All four are good shooters, solid ballhandlers and energetic defenders. That's all the Rockets need from their backcourt -- swingman Tracy McGrady does the bulk of the ballhandling and draws most of the defensive attention.

James, 29, also fits because he is new and because he is experienced. The Rockets have only two players -- Yao Ming and Scott Padgett -- who were with the team at the end of last season. Of the 13 players Houston has added in the past year, 11 are 29 or older.

"We are all veterans, so as we add players and make changes, everyone can just roll with it," James says. "Everyone on this team has been through a lot in their careers, and we're at a point where we just want to win. When you go to Austria or France or the CBA and you wind up in the NBA, you get a better perspective on things. I think everyone on this team has that good perspective."

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