PHILADELPHIA — The Salt Lake City Stars were busing through Arizona when Isaiah Wong got the call. His stint in the G League didn’t go unnoticed, and it took just eight games for the Charlotte Hornets to come calling, an injury-depleted roster in need of a scoring reserve guard. That’s how Wong got to the visitors’ locker room at the Wells Fargo Center on Friday night, for the seventh game of his NBA career in the city where he played his final two years of high school basketball. For a player who spent four years at the University of Miami, the flux of three NBA organizations in a year has been a change. “It definitely was an adjustment, coming into a new team, and this year, my third team,” Wong said. “But just coming in, I’m trying to get to know people, just try to do my part. I feel like in every situation, every team needs something, and I just try to provide my best.” Wong was selected with the 55th overall pick in the 2023 draft by the Indiana Pacers. He excelled in the G League last year to earn a one-game cameo late in the regular season, then traveled with the team on its postseason journey to the Eastern Conference finals, suiting up a couple of times. He ended up with Utah’s G League squad in the summer, then was picked up by Charlotte after injuries to Grant Williams, LaMelo Ball and others. In his first six games as a Hornet, Wong averaged 7.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2 assists in 15.6 minutes per game. He checked in midway through the first quarter Friday for the Hornets, which were playing without Ball and Brandon Miller. Wong played 16 minutes, with a career-high 11 points on 4-for-7 hooting. He tied a career-best with four assists in the Hornets 108-98 loss. Charlotte Hornets guard Isaiah Wong (21) and guard KJ Simpson (25) high-five during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley) Wong had plenty of family in attendance, though for someone who grew up in Piscataway before moving to Trenton and then Drexel Hill, the 76ers aren’t the team of his youth. “I’ve got a lot of family coming,” he said. “I don’t know what to feel right now, just coming into the game, I feel like I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. I feel like right now, I’m not really worried about that part, just focused and trying to do my job.” Wong started his high school career at Notre Dame in Lawrenceville. He spent two years at Bonner & Prendergast, where he scored 2,119 points across four years of high school. Wong spent four years in Coral Gables, playing 132 games (112 starts) with 1,866 points. On a two-way contract with the Greensboro Swarm, Wong played 15 games in the G League last year, averaging 17.7 points. That rose to 24.1 points in eight games with Salt Lake City this year. He knew to bide his time, a message reinforced last year by his Indiana teammate Quenton Jackson, who’s been through it before. He kept his focus on the short-term, with the hope that it might lead to benefits down the road. “The people and coaches around me were like, ‘you’re going to get a good opportunity. Like, it’s coming,’” Wong said of when he got the news. “So I wasn’t really trying to think about the best situation. I was always just trying to focus on playing the next game and stuff. But when it happened, I felt like it was a congratulations moment, and it felt real good.”