A 3 a.m. plane ride into Charlotte, a double-digit point loss ... but man, for Hassan Whiteside, it’s still good to be home.
Whiteside’s path from Gastonia to max-contract player for the Miami Heat has been told and retold throughout his career, but now in his seventh season, it still bears repeating, if only to reaffirm how unlikely and unusual it really was.
The short version goes like this: Whiteside grew up in Gastonia but never played varsity high school ball there, always transferring from school to school and briefly moving to New Jersey. He played collegiately at Marshall, opting to leave after one season, but struck out both with the Sacramento Kings, who drafted him in the second round, and later the Memphis Grizzlies.