CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers were able to add to their roster over the All-Star break as they brought in Cam Payne from overseas on a deal for the rest of the season. The 10-year NBA veteran was playing for Partizan in Belgrade, Serbia before the Sixers brought him back to the league.

This is a return for Payne as he played 31 games for Philadelphia after being acquired at the deadline in the 2023-24 season. He averaged 9.3 points and 3.1 assists while shooting 38.2% from deep while providing a ton of energy and being a spark plug off the bench for the Sixers.

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As he makes his return to the league, Payne is happy that his return is in familiar territory.

“It’s really good that I came to a familiar team, but man, I really went to Partizan to play there,” Payne said at practice on Wednesday. “It wasn’t really the thought—obviously, I wanted to get back, but all my focus was there. I feel like sometimes when your focus is in the right place, things like this happen, so I was just really locked in there and me playing there got the looks to come back here.”

Speaking of Partizan, Payne was just focused on playing basketball and helping them succeed. The move over back to the NBA and sign with the Sixers happened fairly quickly which led to him hopping on a plane and heading back to Philadelphia.

“It actually happened pretty fast,” Payne laughed. “I found out maybe, like, three days ago. Two or three days ago. I was literally at my game. I was at that game so I was just watching and I think my agent told me during the game, and he was like ‘Man, it’s gonna happen pretty fast. You might wanna pack. We gotta go through the logistics, but you might wanna pack.’”

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Due to the quick turnaround, Payne had to quickly get to Philadelphia to get a practice in before getting after it in practice with the Sixers again.

“Yesterday (Tuesday) was a pretty long day,” he smiled. “My flight was super early in the morning like 6 AM, so I didn’t really sleep. I had to be at the airport at, like, 3:30, 4:00, then I had to fly from Serbia to Amsterdam which is like a 2-hour, 2.5-hour flight. Then fly from Amsterdam to Philly yesterday. Got here at, like, 3:30, came in here for a physical. So, I ain’t really been sleep. Really keep working on the time adjustment, but it’s fine. I’m cool. I’ll catch up.”

Payne and the Sixers will take on the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday to get back at it.

This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Cam Payne reacts to his return to the Philadelphia 76ers on a deal