Professional Basketball Player

His basketball journey is an example of relentlessness and perseverance.

FAMILY BACKGROUND

TQ’s extended family was always supportive of his commitment to education and to participating in his favorite sport, basketball. 

EDUCATION

A basketball future for TQ looked promising during his sophomore season at a high school in Maryland. He moved up to the varsity for the team’s final playoff game. Then TQ and his family moved to Florida and a new high school, which forecast a pattern of attending many different schools while he sought to stabilize and progress toward his goal of being a professional basketball player. 

MULTIPLE CHALLENGES OVERCOME

After moving to Florida, TQ was ruled ineligible to play due to transferring rules. He was able to return to his Maryland high school for his senior year, but the new coach there played TQ in only 9 games so with little opportunity to display his skills, he received zero scholarship offers. 

Next stop: a Maryland community college where its basketball team was coached by his former AAU team coach. However, the deadline was missed for TQ’s financial aid paperwork so he was (for reasons unknown and therefore can’t be explained here) ineligible to play basketball for the community college that year. 

Next stop: TQ transferred to a college in California, where his basketball talents were on full display as he averaged 21.3 points and 7.9 rebounds in 14 games as a freshman. But the living arrangements were bad, as TQ was housed along with 14 teammates in a two-bedroom apartment. After several teammates were steadily noisy, all of them were evicted from the apartment. With no other option, TQ and three teammates ended up sleeping in a car parked on a city street. 

At the same time, TQ’s grandmother died. TQ had no time or money to travel across the country to be with her during her final hours or just to attend her funeral. “So that was my toughest time. I was about to give up everything” said TQ but he remembered what his grandmother told him about being able “to do all things through Christ and strength in me.”

Next stop: TQ’s remaining family asked him to transfer schools – again – which he did, enrolling in a combined junior college / military institute in New Mexico, where TQ experienced immediate success on the basketball court, scoring 40 points in his first game. Thereafter, he averaged 26 points and 7.3 rebounds per game during his sophomore season. 

Next stop: TQ was supposed to play basketball in a Kentucky college program but when he learned that the college was already over its number of permitted scholarship athletes, he decommitted and accepted an offer to play at a university in New Mexico where, as a senior, he was ‘Second Team All-Conference’ and regarded as one of the conference’s best defenders. 

PRO CAREER STARTS – OR DOES IT?

After going undrafted, TQ signed a non-guaranteed contract to play with an NBA team but five weeks later, he was waived from the main pro team with the opportunity to play in its “G League” (top minor-league team).

After that first year of professional basketball, TQ signed a partially guaranteed training-camp deal with a different NBA team, but he was waived a month later and returned to the same G league team, where he was honored as the league and playoffs MVP. Soon after, TQ signed a two-way contract with his first NBA team. 

Now in his third season of professional basketball, TQ has signed a partially guaranteed contract, two-year with a third NBA team, currently assigned to its G league affiliate team. 

CAREER SATISFACTION

Through all his challenges, TQ always found ways to weather obstacles even when it would have been easy to give up. “It’s all part of the process,” said TQ, at age 25 (as of July 2022). 

“Some people don’t get to where they have to get until (they’re) 30 years old. Some people get it by 18. But for me, I’m into it for longevity. You know what I mean? I want to play 15 more years (at this) game.”

“So, for me, I’m not satisfied with a two-year deal. I’ll (be) more satisfied with being remembered for what I did. I never get discouraged” said TQ about his journey. “I knew it was bigger than me. I knew I had to keep going. If I quit, I’m not just letting myself down, I’m letting my family down and everybody who invested in me. So, for me, it’s always been bigger than me.” 

This career story is based on a news article written by Keith Pompey, published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on 7/3/22.