Chris Douglas-Roberts went from playing D-League games to defending LeBron James in the NBA Playoffs for the Charlotte Hornets. In that transition, Douglas-Roberts proved to other NBA teams that he had staying power.
Douglas-Roberts has parlayed that performance into a deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, according to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register. He is part of a free-agency haul that includes Ekpe Udoh, who signed a veteran's minimum deal and will partner with Douglas-Roberts to bolster the Clippers' bench.
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Prior to making a free-agency decision, Douglas-Roberts expressed a desire to remain in Charlotte in exit interviews. He was fresh off a postseason loss to the Miami Heat in April and looking back on an opportunity that changed his life, on and off the court, in a drastic way.
"This is the most comfortable I've felt in my career," Douglas-Roberts said in April. "Totally unexpected. I came in here with high expectations, but you never know if you're going to get that opportunity and (Coach Steve Clifford) gave me that opportunity I asked for."
Things didn't come quite that easy for Douglas-Roberts prior to his stint in Charlotte. After an All-American career at Memphis, Douglas-Roberts, who played alongside Derrick Rose in the NCAA title game, dropped to the then New Jersey Nets at No. 40 in the second round.
Three average seasons passed and Douglas-Roberts went to play in Italy while others waited out the 2011 NBA lockout. His journey back into the good graces of NBA would include D-League stops and workouts at LA Fitness while waiting for teams to call.
"Those were the times that I would say defined me," Chris-Douglas said. "I worked two or three times a day with no light at the end of the tunnel.
"I'm not saying some days weren't better than others, because there were days that I was depressed and wondering, 'Is my time going to come back around?' But then I reached a point where I was like, 'I know my times is going to come back around because I invested so much work. And I feel like as long as you're work and you're not cheating yourself, your time is going to eventually come and I was prepared for it."