We all know the stars that came into the NBA as first-round picks. But there are a lot of good players in the league that have seemingly come out of nowhere.
Getting to and staying in the NBA is never easy. Every basketball player dreams of playing basketball at a high-level Division I college, playing in the NCAA tournament, getting drafted in the lottery and having a long NBA career. However, for the players on the 2019-20 All-NBA Out-Of-Nowhere team, this is far from reality. In fact, many players on NBA teams have paid their dues in the G-League or by riding the bench for their teams.
Some players will spend years going back and forth between the G-League and their respective NBA team before they finally find a role on their team. Some guys may never find their place in the NBA and will eventually establish themselves overseas. Every player takes a different path in getting where they end up and today we’re going to take a look at some of the more unconventional paths.
The All-NBA Out-Of-Nowhere Team will consist of two guards, two forwards and a center that all grinded in different ways and now find themselves on an NBA roster. For these guys, their journeys are far from over, but it seems as though they have each found a significant role in the NBA.
These players have spent time at Division III schools, junior colleges, they’ve been on 10-day contracts, spent significant time in the G-League and even overseas. Some of them were highly successful college players that have taken time to find their footing in the NBA and others received very few Division I college offers. However, the one commonality between all these players is that all of them have come out of seemingly nowhere.