In basketball, traveling is a bad thing — unless you’re Mychal Ammons. Then it’s how you play the game.

The former Vicksburg High star recently concluded a stint with the Tijuana Zonkeys of Mexico’s CIBACOPA league. It was the seventh different country — on three continents — Ammons has played in, and the fourth he’s played in professionally in the past two years.

It’s been a whirlwind world tour for the 24-year-old who turned pro in 2014, but one he’s throughly enjoyed.

“I’ve been around,” Ammons said with a laugh. “It’s been fun, though. You get to see different parts of the world. I’m just now really trying to find a place where I can actually stick. We’ll see what happens in the next phase, but for now I’m back home for the summer and trying to get better at my craft.”

Ammons was back in his hometown of Vicksburg last week to play in the River City Summer League. The workout camp is hosted by the Jackson Showboats of the American Basketball Association and is designed to let college and pro players stay in shape during the offseason.

Ammons has ties to Showboats general manager and coach Grant Worsley, yet the ABA seems to be one of the few leagues he has never played in.

Ammons led Vicksburg High to the Class 6A championship game in 2011 and went on to play college ball at South Alabama. He left after his junior season to play pro ball, but was never a serious candidate for the NBA draft.

Instead, Ammons turned his eye toward Europe and has made a career of bouncing from league to league overseas.

In 2014, he signed with Feni Indistrija in Macedonia’s First League. The following year, he split time between the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Developmental League and Estudiantes Concordia of Argentina’s Liga Nacional de Basquet, before going to Mexico to play a half-season with the Zonkeys.

In addition to his professional career, Ammons played in international tournaments in Switzerland, Greece and Bulgaria as part of the United States’ FIBA U-15 team. In college, he played in a tournament in Canada.

Playing in so many different places, Ammons said, has had a self-perpetuating effect on his career. He’s made enough contacts in a wide array of leagues that he said another contract and overseas adventure is never far away.

“It’s great, especially in a world now where a lot of things are based on contacts,” Ammons said. “You meet a lot of people. My network, at the age of 24, is pretty big. I’ve got a lot of people I know, and that turns into friendships. I’m enjoying it. I’ve got zero complaints.”

It’s helped that Ammons has carved out a reputation as a productive and versatile player. At 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds, and with both a deft shooting touch and strong inside game, he’s able to play shooting guard or either forward position.

His versatility extends beyond the court, however. Learning to adapt to different cultures, league standards and personalities while maintaining a professional attitude is essential, he said.

“It’s all about where you go. There’s some bad places and there’s some good places. There’s coaches that are (jerks) and coaches that actually know what they’re doing. It’s all about being on a professional scale and maintaining your composure and listening to everybody,” Ammons said. “If you’re a true professional, you won’t have a problem, whether it’s in Germany, Israel, Belgium, Macedonia, Greece or Finland, it won’t matter.”

Playing overseas can be lucrative. While players don’t make the millions they do in the NBA, different leagues offer perks that often make up some of the difference. For a player like Ammons, who would be on the bottom end of the NBA salary scale if he were to get an offer, playing overseas might even be a better deal.

“You can make just as much money overseas. A lot of guys, with the way taxes are here, if you sign for the minimum in the League it’s $500,000. You might see $370,000 or $380,000 of it,” Ammons said. “Overseas, you can sign for twice as much as that and it’s all tax free. I’ve never been one to just chase the money. I enjoy what I do. I’ve just got to be patient and keep on plugging away at it.”

As with anything, however, there are negatives that go along with the positives of playing overseas. Chief among them is instability and uncertainty, something Ammons learned last season.

After playing the entire 2014-15 season in Macedonia, Ammons split the 2015-16 season between Argentina, the U.S. and Mexico. He was waived by the Stampede before they brought him back two months later.

Unlike the NBA, which has no restrictions on foreign-born players, smaller overseas leagues often have limits on the number of American-born players teams can sign.

The Americans that are brought in are often signed to short-term or one-year contracts.

“As an American, yes” there is some pressure, Ammons said. “Teams can send you home. They can’t cut their national players. It’s a little more pressure. So I’m just trying to find a place where I can stick.”

That might wind up being the D-League. The Stampede — a Utah Jazz affiliate that is moving to Salt Lake City and being renamed the Stars for next season — has his American rights for two more years.

Ammons said he was still weighing his overseas options as well as his future with the D-League, but is looking for some stability in his career.

“I’ve been signed to a two-year deal. Most people don’t want to do that, because next year it may open doors to something higher,” he said. “But I’ve played on the highest levels. So I’m ready to get to a place where a team can sign me to a two-year, three-year deal. I want to find some place I can stick and make a career out of it.”

Whether that’s here in the United States, in Europe, or on the moon hardly matters, Ammons added. As a professional basketball player, part of the job is to play well enough to keep parlaying one offer into the next one and climb the ladder.

If it never leads to the bright lights of the NBA, he’s OK with that.

“It’s always been a goal, but it’s not the only goal. The NBA is not for everybody,” he said.

What he’s hoping for instead is a long and productive career playing the game he loves, and going wherever the road takes him.

“I’m still young. I’m 24 years old. I’ve got a good nine, 10 more years left in me,” Ammons said. “So while I’m young I’m learning, listening, playing as hard as I can and just taking advantage of every opportunity that I’ve got.”