Prior to making his official NBA debut on Nov. 1, 2013, as a member of the Utah Jazz, brand-new New Orleans Pelicans free-agent signee Ian Clark traveled an unconventional path to the league. As described by Mike Organ – a sports reporter for the Tennessean newspaper – Clark went largely unnoticed by big-name colleges before he committed to tiny Belmont University. A Memphis native, Clark enjoyed a stellar college career for in-state Belmont (which is located in Nashville), but then went undrafted by the NBA in ‘13.
To learn more about Clark’s uncommon background, as the only player in Belmont history to ever appear in an NBA game, we caught up with Organ, who covered the 6-foot-3 guard during his steady rise to prominence.