Sarunas Jasikevicius became one of the Indiana Pacers' elder statesmen Thursday after signing a 3-year contract.
The 29-year-old Lithuanian played at Maryland and spent the past seven years playing in Europe.
"Hopefully I'll be a small piece of the puzzle and contribute," Jasikevicius said at a news conference. "On a daily basis, I have to earn respect from my teammates and my coaches and everybody in the organization.
"So it's a different situation than if I changed teams in Europe. I'm OK with that, because this has been a dream for me to play in the NBA for many years."
The 6-foot-4 guard averaged 15.7 points and 5.3 assists last season, helping Maccabi Tel Aviv win its second straight Euroleague championship. With the retirement of 39-year-old Reggie Miller and the uncertainty of the return of 36-year-old free agent Dale Davis, Jasikevicius is older than all but four of Indiana's veteran players.
"I think I'm going to have to adapt to the team much more than they're going to have to adapt to me," Jasikevicius said. "I'm a rookie. I might be very old for a rookie, but I am one. So I'm going to adjust to the team."
The Pacers won't necessarily be looking to Jasikevicius for scoring, even with Miller gone. They figure they'll get plenty of points from Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson, along with the returning Ron Artest, who missed all but nine games last season after he was suspended for fighting with fans at Detroit.
Jasikevicius, instead, will likely share playing time at point guard with Jamaal Tinsley, Anthony Johnson and Eddie Gill.
"He's a guy who can score, yet I don't see him referred to a lot as a big scorer," coach Rick Carlisle said. "He's a winner. And he's done it in a lot of different situations."
After four years at Maryland, Jasikevicius was not drafted by an NBA team and returned to Europe, where he played for Lietuvos Rytas in his native Lithuania. He later played for Barcelona and in Israel and drew new interest in the NBA after he scored 28 points in Lithuania's upset over the United States in the Olympics last year.
He turned down offers from Cleveland, Utah, Seattle and Portland before agreeing to join the Pacers last month.
"I've seen Sarunas play a number of times," Pacers president Larry Bird said. "He has a unique ability to get the ball to people that's open. He can hit open shots. He's a competitor. He just adds so much to our team."
The fact he was recruited personally by Bird, helped sway Jasikevicius' decision, he said.
"Obviously, he has incredible respect all over the world," he said. "For me, obviously, it's very nice to have a guy like this come talk to me."
STERN SUPPORTS REMOVAL OF BELKIN: NBA commissioner David Stern submitted an affidavit Thursday supporting the efforts by the majority of the Atlanta Hawks owners to remove Steve Belkin as the team's NBA governor.
The majority of the Atlanta Spirit LLC group has requested that Belkin be replaced with Michael Gearon Jr., as NBA governor, the member of the group who must sign off on all trades.
The effort to remove Belkin, who owns 30 percent of the team, followed his refusal to approve the team's attempted sign-and-trade for guard Joe Johnson of the Phoenix Suns.
The owners sought assistance from Stern after Boston judge Allan van Gestel granted Belkin's request for a temporary injunction Tuesday. The judge said a contract signed by all the owners last year prevents other members of the ownership group from voting Belkin out.
ORLANDO WAIVES CHRISTIE: The Orlando Magic waived guard Doug Christie on Thursday after a disappointing season marred by injury and public squabble with team management. After his season ended because of an ankle injury in April, Christie lashed out at general manager John Weisbrod, who has since resigned for a job in the NHL.
"From the standpoint of a professional atmosphere and a job, it would be very difficult to come back there and play under the circumstances that I have been put through for the last four months," Christie said at the time. He had been on the injured list since March 5.
ROCKETS RE-SIGN BARRY: Jon Barry re-signed with the Rockets after joining the team in December from Atlanta and providing Houston with strong 3-point shooting. The 6-foot-5 free-agent guard has been with eight teams during his 13-year career. Barry averaged seven points in 53 games for the Rockets.