Emmanuel Mudiay, , is relatively unknown to most, despite spending much of his youth in Texas. Credit his unusual path to the NBA.
Mudiay, who spent his early childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo before moving with his family to Texas, committed to play for former Nuggets coach Larry Brown at Southern Methodist University, in 2013. But before joining the Mustangs, he decided to go pro overseas instead, signing a $1.2 million contract with the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association.
It was a decision based on hardship; after watching his mother and brothers struggle for years to make ends meet, he wanted to help provide for them by turning pro early and bypassing college.
It was also a decision he, and the Nuggets, say . He quickly had to adapt to playing against more physical players — men much bigger and stronger than he was as a teenager.
Check out the clip above, , to see the kind of player he was before going pro, as a senior guard at Prime Prep in Dallas in 2013-14.
