Houston Rockets big man Christian Wood recalled a nightmarish start to his NBA career in 2015 that included going undrafted and getting dumped by his girlfriend in the same night.
“I lost my girlfriend that night, too,” Wood recently told The Ringer. “I dropped her off at the airport after the draft and never saw her again.”
Amidst rumors regarding a poor work ethic, Wood's draft stock plummeted. Originally expected to be taken in the first round, Wood was without a team at the end of the night. “He was definitely a first-round talent coming out of college,” one NBA executive said. “Him going undrafted was all based on background intel.”
Wood, who was among the first NBA players to test positive for COVID-19, eventually signed with the 76ers and floated in and out of the G-League. In 2017, he played in the Chinese Basketball Association but was eventually waived: “To get cut from a team in China because they tell me I wasn’t good enough — that really tested me. That was the breaking point,” Wood said.
“I still haven’t reached my goal. I want to be an All-Star. I feel like I can be one of the top players in the league,” Wood said.
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