Pacers veteran Rasual Butler revels in returning to the NBA

It takes a moment for Rasual Butler to consider the question.

So much has happened, his world has completely changed, so Butler needs some time to sort out the story.

Today, Butler is the 34-year-old veteran who defied NBA logic by making the Indiana Pacers roster out of training camp. But on this wintery afternoon in downtown Indianapolis, while dressed head-to-toe in Pacers sweats, Butler must pause and think hard about his whereabouts last year.

"I don't even know, was I in the D-League yet?" Butler asks. "I don't think so."

Then, Butler recalls the details. It's a journey he'll never quite forget and one he won't grow tired of sharing.

"I think I was still working out in L.A. Believing that something would happen," he says. "Getting up every morning and making sure that, if and when the phone rang, I would be ready."

Butler has recaptured his NBA career just by staying ready.

During 2011-12, he was waived by the Toronto Raptors and remained without an NBA job for the entire next season. Butler had bounced around five teams in 10 years, thought of as just a spot-up shooter and possibly, one close advocate believes, considered a veteran who wasn't worth the trouble.

Forget one foot, Butler had nine toes out of the very exclusive club that no basketball player ever wants to be escorted away from. But he remained humble, hungry and, most of all, ready. After a year spent remaking his body then accepting the lowly assignments of Development League standout and Summer League old head, Butler has returned to the NBA.

"You don't get too many of those," says Geo Aispuro, the basketball trainer who worked out with Butler for nearly a year so he could return to the NBA. "You get a lot of guys that drop out but you just never get those guys that drop out and get back into the league."

Old soul

Butler has this old soul about him. He speaks like a late-night DJ spinning jazz records and even breaks up the uncensored jocularity in the Pacers' locker room whenever he feels the ribbing could go too far. Butler carries the sophistication of well-traveled diplomat and shares wisdom like the neighborhood lifer. But really, he's just a man who's seen his share of twists and turns and now feels grateful for this time of stability.

"Obviously I'm on the back end of my career, so I take every moment serious. … I enjoy every day," Butler says. "I understand how not to lose sight of what's important, what the goal is and just really happy to be back in the NBA and being with a great organization like this one, like the Pacers."

It's a long way from Toronto where the 2011-12 Raptors brought him in as a veteran who could help their playoff aspirations. He'd averaged more than 10 points per game in three different seasons and hadn't shot less than 33.1 perceont on 3-pointers since his rookie year. But that season, Butler shot the lowest field-goal percentage of his career (30.8, 27.3 on 3s) and the team lost games. By March, a playoff push in Toronto became a fantasy and the Raptors wanted to give time to younger guys.

Butler appreciated head coach Dwane Casey's honesty — it would not be good for him to sit on the bench, so the team opted to waive Butler on a chance that he'd get picked up by a playoff-bound franchise. Though there were brief rumors that he'd rejoin the Chicago Bulls, no team called.

"That was a little surprising to me," says Pacers power forward David West, who was a teammate of Butler's in New Orleans. "(Because) he's a worker. He's just one of those guys that's going to work and just going to put his time in."

West knows his friend well. As soon as it became clear that Butler would not get picked up, he immediately went to work towards next season. Butler packed for Los Angeles for what he felt would be a temporary training spot with Joe Abunassar and his Impact Basketball staff.

There were long hours of the same routine. Butler would arrive at the gym early and lift weights for nearly two hours, stop for a recovery shake, then take the court at noon for basketball drills and games until 2, sometimes 3 p.m. Then another break for lunch, only to return to put more shots up in the evening. Through the summer, other NBA players who were looking for an edge surrounded Butler, but they all eventually peeled away for training camp.

Butler, however, had nowhere to go.

"He never left," Abunassar recalls. "Our staff was ready to take a day off and here comes Rasual walking in the door. We had a love-hate relationship with him. We loved training him but man, you got to get a job so you can get out of here.

"Rasual really had an unbelievable focus because a lot of guys would have just said to hell with it," Abunassar continues. "He wasn't getting any love. No one was interested and instead of packing it up, he just kept picking it up."

Invisible man

Butler confessed to feeling rejected last summer.

"Some days, it was tough, because I'm a human being," Butler says. "It was like, 'Wow! The phone hasn't rang yet and it may not ring and I'm going to have to deal with that.' "

Butler was properly motivated — his 15-year-old daughter, Raven, chose to live with him full-time and he wanted to show her that dad could make it back to the league. He was also appropriately trained — Abunassar and Aispuro recall sending patsies to the gym for Butler to beat up on 1-on-1. That way, he'd stay sharp with sky-high confidence.

However, the 2012-13 NBA season started without him.

"I think he got categorized as just a shooter and I think he got a reputation around the league for not being the best teammate. When you're on the brink and you're not a star, the personality things come in," Abunassar says. "When you get older like Rasual was and all of a sudden, he's a spot shooter, why bring him in at $1.4 million when you can grab a guy for $300,000-$450,000 who's not going to say nothing or do nothing? I don't think that he was ever like a jerk but I think that he wore on some guys over the years."

West doesn't agree with the difficult tag. "He was a good teammate," West says.

Butler felt that maybe his low-key, soft-spoken nature was often misread as moodiness. Even so, would a diva ever consider busing it around the D-League? That's the option Butler jumped at this past January when the Tulsa 66ers offered him a spot on the roster. And Butler didn't simply show up to big-time the small stage — he eagerly embraced the role of leader.

"They were calling me Grandpop. OG (Original Gangster). Triple OG," Butler says, laughing. "But when the game started they were, 'Yo, what do we need to do? Show us. Lead us.'

"I used to always be a lead-by-example kind of guy, kind of quiet, and that got me out of that shell. I had to and needed to be more vocal in that situation."

Opportunity

This holiday season, Butler helped teammate George Hill deliver toys to families. Butler celebrated a win over Miami by attending a Justin Timberlake concert with teammates. He even recently played a three-game stretch as the backup wing, averaging 6.0 points and making 4-of-7 3-pointers in 17 minutes per game, filling the minutes that now belong to Danny Granger.

But where was Butler last year?

"I think we all took Christmas off. I was trying to get in (the gym) but they were like, 'Dude. Relax,' " Butler said, again with a grin. "I was kinda forced to take the day off."

Butler just wanted to stay ready for an opportunity and his patience paid off in July when the Pacers invited him to play on their Summer League squad. He heard the snickers and knew about the snarky blog posts about the veteran who was nearly 15 years older than the competition showing up in Orlando but Butler was undeterred.

He played so well there and again when he met members of the Pacers at the Los Angeles Clippers' facility later that summer. The team wound up inviting him to training camp. Though the Pacers intended to have a 13-man roster, Butler's play through practices made it tough to cut him.

"There was no bad rap that we saw," Pacers coach Frank Vogel says. "He ended up going to the D-League and having a great year and people realized maybe this guy's not done yet. He came in here and it's been clear that he's not done yet."

The extended recovery time for Granger made the Pacers think twice about cutting their best practice player, but they emphatically endorse Butler as a key player who made the team on his own merit.

From leading a group of castoffs and wannabes in the D-League, now Butler's voice resonates inside a locker room of a NBA championship contender. After one victory, when Hill complained to reporters about wanting to take a shower before answering questions, Butler spoke up.

"Sit down and do what you're supposed to do," advised Butler, overhearing the back-and-forth with Hill near his locker stall.

And when the early team bus rolls into foreign arenas, Butler is there, leading the charge with Chris Copeland, Orlando Johnson and Solomon Hill. Though Butler has only averaged 6.2 minutes per game this season, his presence has impacted the Pacers.

"We play around with each other a lot," Granger says, "and if we kinda get too negative, he'd be one of the guys to say, 'You know what? We got to be positive, man.' "

Butler preaches positivity because that's what sustained him through the tough year out of the league. But remaining optimistic wasn't his only secret in returning to the league.

"You gotta always be ready, man. Because you never know when that time is going to come," Butler says. "I heard this a long time ago, a guy told me hard work doesn't guarantee you anything but without it, you don't have a shot.

"That's just been my approach, just to always be ready."

Call Star reporter Candace Buckner at (317) 444-6121. Follow her on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner