Photos in video courtesy of Kent State Athletics, Konstantinos Katsianis and Canton Charge

The day before he was set to open the 2016-17 season on the road in a 5,000-seat multipurpose arena in the Grand Rapids suburb of Walker, Michigan, Chris Evans was inside the gymnasium of the Edgewood Community Center — a church/recreation center combo serving North Canton — working on his midrange game with Sam Jones, one of his team’s assistant coaches, on one of the facility’s six ceiling mounted basketball hoops.

Although the final Canton Charge preseason practice was all but over, Evans – whose charcoal, long-sleeved shirt was dripping with sweat – opted to stay on the court a little longer, shooting jumper after jumper. At the same time, Jones fed him rebound after rebound, creating a continuous cycle of 20-foot shots – some makes, some misses.

Eventually, though, when Evans wrapped up his shooting routine, he grabbed his team-issued warm-up gear from Michael Clark, the Charge’s manager of community relations and communications who sometimes doubles as the equipment staff when needed, and began to prepare for the five hour bus ride departing the practice facility later that afternoon.

While it may not have been ideal for Evans and his teammates to drive 340 miles, play one game, and turn around and come back shortly after the final whistle, it was the reality of life in the D-League, a 22 team conglomerate that began in 2001 with the aim of becoming the only true professional farm system for the NBA.

Here, players are paid based on skill level, with the least inexperienced taking home a modest $19,500 for a 50-game regular season schedule and the D-League’s elite raking in $26,000 for five months of work, a sliver of the roughly $5.2 million that is the average compensation for a player on an NBA roster.

If there’s one thing everyone who compete in this league is hoping for, though, it’s an opportunity to impress their parent club’s general manager and receive a shot at the next level.

But the odds of getting called up aren’t ideal. At the start of the 2016-17 season, only 135 rostered NBA players – or roughly 30 percent – had prior D-League experience.

However, the prospects of an opportunity is why players like Quinn Cook, the guard who captained Duke to the 2015 NCAA Tournament title, Jon Horford – a former University of Michigan forward who was a Milwaukee Bucks signee for three weeks before being waived – and Evans were willing to play back-to-back games less than 24 hours apart.

Yet, for Evans, who had spent the last three seasons playing in Greece, Italy and Israel, the choice to give up his international basketball contract for an open tryout with the Charge was easy.

For one, the D-League would be a lot less stressful, he thought, than being an American playing overseas, where fans would openly place blame for their team’s failures on him simply because he was an outsider.

He would be able to play under Nate Reinking, the franchise’s newly appointed head coach. And, he was familiar with Northeast Ohio and its local basketball fan base.

But above all else, it gave the 26-year-old another chance.

“I heard nothing but good things about the organization,” Evans said following practice Nov. 10. “For me, it was a no-brainer.”

The JUCO Route

Bobby Steinburg remembers the eight hour drive he made to Petersburg High School eight years ago. In 2009, Steinburg received a phone call from one of his coaching connections informing him of a 6-foot-6 forward who had just qualified for college recruitment.

So, Steinburg, who was in his first season as an assistant at Kent State after being at the helm of Motlow State Community College in Tullahoma, Tennessee for two years, made the 467-mile trek from Northeast Ohio to Petersburg, Virginia – a city of roughly 32,000 located 21 miles south of Richmond – to scout Evans during a high school game.

But he wasn’t alone. Packed inside of the Petersburg High School gym that evening were coaches from both large and small schools – the University of Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth, Georgia and Coastal Carolina.

The previous year, he was excelling at Deep Creek High School in Chesapeake, two hours south of Petersburg. But now, he was living with the mother of his AAU coach and attending a new school, all in an effort to attain the best chance of getting noticed.

Needless to say, the move paid off. During his senior year, Evans had offers from nearly every program that came to scout him.

However, with the ebbs and flows of college basketball recruiting, where decisions are based as much on school size and notoriety as they are on playing time and opportunity, Evans ultimately chose to sign with Coastal Carolina.

He played in 25 of the team’s 35 contests his freshman year – mostly when the game was out of reach, though – and made SportsCenter’s Top-10 Plays for a one-handed dunk he threw down against Gardner-Webb. But things weren’t quite working out in Conway, South Carolina.

At the conclusion of his first season with the Chanticleers, Evans opted to take the JUCO route, transferring to Wabash Valley Community College in Mt. Carmel, Illinois, a two-year school famous for producing current Memphis Grizzlies’ guard Tony Allen and Ken Norman, a 10-year NBA pro who was the 19th overall pick in the 1987 draft by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Just like in high school, when he transferred for a better basketball experience, the decision to enroll at Wabash Valley paid dividends.

During his final season with the program in 2010-11, Evans averaged 19.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, led the school to a regional title, garnered First Team NJCAA Division I All-American honors and was rated the 17th best junior college player in the country by Rivals.com.

And, once again, his performance on the court got him noticed by a handful of Power-5 programs – this time Minnesota, Iowa State and Indiana.

But Steinburg, who had maintained contact with Evans after recruiting him out of high school, offered him the opportunity to finish his final two years of eligibility at Kent State.

However, before Evans had officially inked his paperwork to Kent State, head coach Geno Ford departed to take over the job at Bradley University.

Since Evans still had the potential to withdraw his commitment, Steinburg and Rob Senderoff – who was announced as Ford’s replacement on April 7, 2011 – traveled 473 miles down Interstate 71 to make sure they didn’t lose Evans a second time.

“We drove down to Wabash, where he was, the day after [Senderoff] got the job,” Steinburg said. “We left early in the morning, went down there, sat with him a while, just to make him comfortable. He knew the staff and everything, but with the change, people started fishing around because he hadn’t signed yet when [it] had happened.”

Despite the coaching switch, though, Evans knew he wasn’t going to pass up the same opportunity twice.

“I always said if I had the chance to go to Kent state again I would. And then Coach Steinburg said they were losing scholarships and then he recruited me,” he said. “Right then and there was a no-brainer for me and once I had the second chance, I was like, ‘I’m not looking anywhere else.’”

‘An insurmountable amount of work’

Something clicked with Evans during the nine month period from the final game of his junior season to the opening contest of his final year of college basketball.

Following a 73-58 loss to South Carolina-Upstate in the opening round of the 2012 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, he realized that he didn’t have to be content with assuming the role of the sixth man coming off the bench.

Sure, the 9.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in that first year were solid numbers for a team with plenty of depth at the forward position.

But he wanted to do more. He knew he was capable of more.

So, he hit the weight room, adding 15 pounds of muscle over the summer to bolster his now 6-foot-8 frame to 220. And he worked on the fundamentals – shot selection, ball handling and defense.

From Steinburg’s perspective, it was as if a light bulb went off in his head.

“He really made a commitment at the end of his junior year going into his senior year. It went from being, ‘I’m a college basketball player. I’m going to do it, I’m going to work hard’ to ‘This is going to be my career,’” Steinburg recalled, sitting in the men’s basketball offices in early December, one day before a home matchup with New Jersey Institute of Technology.

“That, to me, is the most impressive thing because he finally realized it’s going to take an insurmountable amount of work and extra work,” he added. “And it just can’t just be practicing two hours a day and going home and playing video games or talking on the phone or whatever.”

For one, Evans learned to embrace and play through contact instead of simply throwing up a shot whenever his forward progress toward the basket was impeded.

He was able to get by in high school and junior college on size and athleticism alone, but in the MAC, he needed to be physical to go up against the likes of Buffalo’s Javon McCrea, a first Team All-MAC performer in 2012, and Zeke Marshall, Akron’s former seven-foot center.

And this newfound approach paid off in a league game against Buffalo on Feb. 27, 2013.

After UB’s Tony Watson failed to convert a four-point play to give his team the lead with 18 seconds remaining, Evans pulled down the subsequent rebound off of the missed free throw attempt and leisurely dribbled the ball across the half court line and waited at the top of the key until he had one-on-one coverage.

With 3.5 seconds left, Evans drove to his right and hop stepped along the baseline to create separation. However, despite being guarded by three Buffalo players in the paint, Evans continued to drive, fought through contact on his way up and banked in the game-winning layup high off the glass as time expired.

“That’s something that, maybe before, he’d try to finesse it up, but as a senior he tried to go through him,” Steinburg said. “He really improved himself and he had an attack mentality, never took a play off.”

After the shot went in, when the team stormed the court to congratulate him, Evans rushed over to the student section behind the far hoop to celebrate the victory with his friend, Dri Archer, a former Kent State running back who was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2014.

While that moment is one Evans will always remember, his other highlight was what he and teammates accomplished against Akron in the James A. Rhodes Arena that season.

“Senior year when we beat Akron at Akron on their senior night. I think that was really a good spoiler for us,” Evans said. “I think we had lost to them four times straight.”

A little more than two weeks after Kent State shocked the first place team in the conference, 68-64, on the road, Evans’ career as a Golden Flash had come to an end via a 73-59 loss at Loyola (Md.) in the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

In his two seasons at Kent State, Evans – who graduated in with a degree in Human Movement Studies and minor in Athletic Coaching – played in 63 games, started 33 of them, and averaged 12.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

Though he’s been away from the program for nearly four years and while most of the current players on Kent State’s roster have never met Evans in person, they know who he is, where he’s played and keep up-to-date on his current stats though social media.

“Guys that have never met him before, they’ll come up to myself or Coach [Eric] Haut or Coach [Rob] Senderoff or Coach Akeem [Miskdeen] or any of these guys and say, ‘How’s Chris doing? How’d Chris play last night?’’ Steinburg said. “It’s a pretty special thing when they’re following a guy they really don’t know, never played with, but it’s part of that Kent State family. And to them, it’s a big deal for him to be doing well because he wore that same uniform.”

The Coaching Connection

When Reinking wrapped up his 16-year professional career playing in England and Belgium, which included a stint as a member of the Great Britain national basketball team at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do.

The Galion, Ohio native had always been around basketball – from playing for his father in high school to running the point guard position at Kent State in the mid-1990s – so it made sense to stick with what he knew.

But this notion was reinforced after he talked to Senderoff over the telephone shortly after arriving back in the states.

Since graduating from Kent State with a bachelor’s in exercise science in 1996, Reinking had stayed in touch with his former college program and valued Senderoff’s input.

Eventually, he was hired by the Charge, which had relocated to Canton from Rio Rancho, New Mexico two years prior, as an assistant under Jordi Fernandez, serving for three seasons.

Then, when Fernandez departed Canton before the start of the 2016-17 campaign to become an assistant for the Denver Nuggets, Charge General Manager Mike Gansey, a former West Virginia guard and Cleveland native, promoted Reinking to head coach.

That summer, Evans and his agent phoned Senderoff for advice, weighing the potential benefits of trying out with a D-League team with the setbacks associated with foregoing an already established international career.

“Chris and his agent called me in July and then again in August trying to figure out if he was going to go back overseas or try to make a chance to play in the D-league to hopefully give himself a chance to play in the NBA,” Senderoff said. “With [Reinking] being named the coach there, they felt like maybe there was a connection and maybe an opportunity for Chris. So far, I think it’s probably worked out for both parties pretty well.”

This past September, Evans attended an open tryout hosted by the Charge at Canton McKinley Memorial Fieldhouse. Through its grassroots effort, every D-League team holds tryouts for anyone with a little ambition, courage and a $100 non-refundable tryout fee.

It’s a way for aspiring players to receive an invite to a training camp without having to declare for the D-League draft.

Most of the time, the type of people who show up are middle-aged rec leaguers past their prime, still hoping for a chance to prove themselves as professional athletes. Other times, though, the occasional diamond in the rough will show up.

Evans, who performed well enough during conditioning tests, individual position drills and game situations to be the lone tryout player invited to Charge training camp. From there, he survived an additional five roster cuts to make the team.

In his first career D-League game, the road contest against the Grand Rapids Drive on Nov. 11, he recorded 11 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes of play. The following night, on 20 hours rest, he put up 20 on a 9-14 shooting performance. Then, he scored over 30 points in three of his next four games.

It’s not an accident that he’s played in nearly every game this season for the Charge. Rather, it’s credited to his personal drive and desire to help the team in any way he can. That, and it doesn’t hurt that he can play three out the five positions in basketball if needed.

“Just his versatility, which creates crazy disadvantages for the other team. It’s really a benefit for me and the team,” Reinking said at the conclusion of the Charge’s final preseason practice. “He’s an all-arounder. But more than that, he’s just willing to do whatever it takes. So if I put him in spots he’s not normally used to, he’s more than willing to help the team.”

‘A no-brainer’

Even with his team’s second consecutive loss imminent in the Nov. 12 home opener against the Long Island Nets, Chris Evans was still battling in a last ditch effort to minimize the deficit on the scoreboard.

Though it would have been easy to let the Nets, a D-League expansion franchise new to the league, run out the clock and escape the confines of the Canton Memorial Civic Center with their first ever victory, Evans wanted to give the crowd of 3,064 one last thing to cheer for in spite of the loss.

Besides, he was glad to have fans on his side for a change instead of getting jeered by home supporters, like he did during his three years playing overseas.

After Evans intercepted Long Island’s inbounds pass intended for Donnie McGrath with 17 seconds remaining, he dribbled past the half court line and hit a cutting Mike Williams with a bounce pass for the easy layup.

Williams’ bank shot off the backboard was too strong, though, and hit front iron.

But since Evans stayed with the play and hustled down court, he grabbed the ball midair as it bounced off the rim and converted a reverse follow-through slam, a surprising bright spot despite the loss that sent a boisterous final applause ringing throughout the 65-year-old venue famous for hosting some of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s annual events.

When the horn finally sounded, signaling a 116-110 loss for the Charge, Evans placed his clear, plastic mouthguard in the elastic of his right crew sock and walked the 25 feet from his bench to the scorer’s table to begin the ritual post-game handshake before exiting the court.

Despite the setback, Evans was all smiles as his way toward the locker room, digesting the type of fast-paced play he witnessed over the course of the previous two nights, which was a lot more up-tempo than what he was accustomed to overseas.

But up and down basketball, where fast breaks and high-flying slams are the norm, is his type of game, especially considering he performed his first dunk in middle school physical education, mesmerizing his seventh grade classmates with his skill and finesse.

While playing in the D-League might not be as glorious as competing for the comparable international clubs, Evans was happy to be appreciated and valued in a blue-collar part of the country, one that has become his adoptive second home since first suiting up for Kent State five years ago.

“If he never makes the NBA … it [the D-League] is not a bad way to make a living and he’s going to have a long career and he’s going to make good money and be able to support a family one day,” Steinburg said. “I know that his parents are extremely proud and we’re proud and all the people that he crossed paths with while he was [at Kent State] are proud and excited to watch his progress.”

Evans doesn’t regret leaving Coastal Carolina after one season and, for him, the decision to play at Kent State after first passing up an opportunity was a “no-brainer.” So was the choice to leave the comforts of international basketball for an open tryout in the D-League.

And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I think people give the D-League a bad reputation. It’s not as miserable as people think it is,” Evans said with a smile. “I love it here, man. I have no complaints at all.”

Nick Buzzelli is a sports reporter. Contact him at [email protected].