“I was at work when I got the call. It was either going to break my heart, or make it.”
This is the story of a stubborn mind. A determined consciousness with a refusal to quit. This is the story of Brandan Striplin, and his unconventional quest to an NBA D-League contract.
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Brandan Striplin graduated from Milpitas (Calif.) High School in 2006. After high school, he attended Foothill Community College in Los Altos where he played basketball for one season, subsequently deciding to transfer after his freshman year.
“Things didn’t workout there,” says Striplin. “They just didn’t work out.”
In contact with several schools, Striplin chose UC Davis. A San Jose native, Davis was only two hours away. It was close to home, but still provided him the feeling of a fresh start and new beginning.
After deciding on Davis, he contacted Aggies assistant coach John Lamanna. The two e-mailed back and forth, with Coach informing Striplin they were interested and wanted to stay in touch over summer.
Summer ended and school began. On his first day of school, Striplin met with Coach Lamanna in his office. The head coach, Gary Stewart, was also there. He informed Coach Stewart of his previous discussions with Coach Lamanna, and a decision was made to add him to his basketball class.
This opportunity presented Striplin the venue to showcase his abilities, his personality and his passion for game. Hopefully Coach Stewart would see this fire and put him on the team. But things didn’t exactly go to plan.
“Coach really didn’t say a word to me once I was in the class,” says Striplin. “And I was killing these cats. Just demolishing them.”
After a term of unexplained cold shoulders, Striplin didn’t know where he stood with everything.
“I took that personally,” says Striplin. “I thought to myself, ‘You know what, if he’s going to ignore me, I’m going to make sure I destroy all his players in intramurals.'”
And that’s exactly what he did.
Striplin and his team went on to win the I.M. basketball championship that year, “creating some buzz,” as he described it, around the Davis campus. The following summer, nothing really transpired. A few e-mails here and there, but nothing concrete. Nothing near what he anticipated.
“Once again, I’m stuck on the outside looking in,” says Striplin. “My second year of this. So, once again, I took that frustration to intramurals.”
According to Striplin, his team won games by an average of 40 points – ultimately leading to his second straight intramural championship. But still no luck with Davis Basketball.
School ended, and Striplin had completed his junior year of college. He realized his time had passed, his opportunity missed, and decided to give up on his aspirations of playing for the Aggies.
“I’m chilling at my house over the summer,” says Striplin. “Things didn’t work out with Coach Stewart – I’m just going to get my degree and go from there. Then I get this e-mail from Coach Lamanna: ‘Congratulations, you’ve been added to the UC Davis men’s basketball roster.’ I had no idea what was going on. I hadn’t talked to Coach Lamanna or Coach Stewart in over a year.”
E-mails began piling in. Workout dates, media functions, team picture information – Striplin had finally accomplished what he had been trying to do for two years.
“I dropped everything, my summer plans, everything, and I went down to Davis,” says Striplin. “I started working out, hard, trying to get in shape with the limited time I had. A couple months later, I’m filling out my media information, I take my picture, attend athlete orientation – everything is good.”
Or so he thought.
A month before the season begins, Striplin gets yet another e-mail: There’s going to be a tryout.
“You know what, whatever,” says Striplin, thinking back on the confusion. “With my luck, I almost expected it. But I took it as a challenge. And because of that, I won every drill. Three-point contest? I won it. Free-throw contest? I won it. One-on-one contest? I won it. We ran sprints? I won those too.”
Two weeks after the surprise tryout, Striplin gets a call – it’s Coach Stewart. He goes on to thank Striplin for his effort, praising his skills and his performance at the tryout. But the compliments subside, and the truth comes to surface. Stewart informs Striplin that the roster is full, that they’ve decided not to take anyone from the tryout.
“I was shocked,” says Striplin. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Striplin’s phone began to ring. Players from the Davis team, friends, family, all calling to console him for this unfortunate situation. Advising Striplin to keep his head up, to stay positive, to not take anything personally and to just keep working.
“So for the third year in a row, I did the only thing I could do – turn to intramurals,” says Striplin. “It was all I had.”
But after back-to-back championships, the intramural gods decided to make number three a bit more difficult. Halfway through the regular season, an opposing player landed on the back of his ankle, fracturing it, and sidelining him for a medically advised 8-9 weeks.
“I was devastated,” says Striplin. “My team was devastated. We were going for that three-peat. But I loved basketball too much give up. I went to the gym and started shooting. I was hopping on one foot, standing on crutches, sitting in a chair, I just kept shooting. And my shot got so much better.”
One month later, Striplin’s team found themselves in the intramural championship. They absorbed Striplin’s injury and fought their way to the final game. Realizing this could potentially be his last chance of playing competitive basketball, Striplin decided to play. It had only been a month since the injury and the ankle was nowhere near healthy.
“My friend was a trainer at Davis,” say Striplin, “so I had him tape it up.”
With a fractured ankle, Striplin hit the game-winning basket, a magical end to his Davis basketball career. He was carried off the floor, “Rudy-esque,” but unlike the movie, he was driven to the emergency room. Along with his fractured ankle, Striplin now tore a tendon in his foot. The doctor again advised 8-9 weeks.
“I said Doc, not a problem. Basketball is over, intramurals are over, not a problem.”
A happy ending. Right?
“So I just graduated. I’m home, on the Internet, and find myself on the NBA D-League website,” says Striplin. “I see that the D-League pre-draft camp is in Kentucky this year, and the application is due in a couple days. But there’s no way I can get it in on time. So I e-mail the D-League and basically ask for an extension. I asked for a couple extra days, and somehow, I got it.
“My birthday was a couple weeks before, and I had just graduated,” continues Striplin. “I’m a broke college kid who just got some money from a birthday and grad party. Should I really spend it all on this flight and application? Should I really do this?”
He did it. After a couple weeks of getting in the best shape possible, Striplin flew to Kentucky. He was greeted at the hotel, welcomed to the camp, and informed of the agents and scouts that would be present during the tryout.
The pre-draft camp was a three-day event broken into two parts: Day One was the meet and greet, while Day Two the games began. 280 players were present at the camp, the D-League’s largest turnout to date. Striplin and the rest of the players were gathered at midcourt, then informed only 20-30 players would receive contracts.
Now here’s what you need to understand: an entry-level contract makes you eligible for the NBA D-League Draft in November. To be drafted, you need to sign a contract. The only players draft eligible that don’t sign contracts are players that played in the league the year before. So, for Striplin be drafted by a D-League team in November, he needed to get a contract. And again, only 20-30 players of the 280 present would receive one.
“I didn’t do so well in the first game,” says Striplin. “I was pretty mad at myself. The guys were so quick. If you relaxed for just one second, you were beat. But my coach decided to start me in the second game. That gave me a lot of confidence.
“I hit my first three in the second game, and they just started falling after that,” adds Striplin. “I was so focused. I wanted that contract so bad. This was my last opportunity, and I needed to take advantage of the situation.”
Striplin’s stellar play continued throughout the rest of the camp. He received praise from several scouts, telling him they loved his defense and scoring ability.
“But I heard all that stuff before at Davis,” says Striplin. “I was really skeptical. I tried not to get my hopes up.”
Striplin returned home from Kentucky and was told he would receive an e-mail in the coming week regarding the status of the contract. A week later, he received the e-mail: Players will hear within the month whether or not they will be signed to an entry-level deal.
Fast forward, and Striplin is on the job as the assistant varsity basketball coach at River City High School in West Sacramento, as well as a middle school basketball coach in Davis.
“Hey, this is Steve Weinman from the NBA Front Office. I’m looking for Brandan Striplin. Please have him give me a call back.”
“I listened to the message and immediately called him back,” says Striplin. “He asked me how I’m doing, how everything was going, then he goes, ‘Well, the scouts and I agree – we would like to sign you to an entry-level player contract. Do you accept?’
“I’ll never forget that moment.”
Striplin accepted the contract and will be receiving details as to next steps in the coming weeks.
“Throughout this whole D-League experience, I just tried not get to my hopes up – especially after all the promises that had been made to me before,” says Striplin. “But once I got the call I went crazy. I was in Davis and the kids were running around. It perfectly described how I was feeling. (laughs) It was an out-of-body experience.”
Several teams, most notably the new expansion team from Canton, have shown interest.
We’ll have to wait until November, however, to see if this story gets a fairy tale ending. But if anything can be learned from Brandan Striplin and his incredible journey, it’s to never give up and never stop believing.
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