Chris Duarte’s road to the NBA was so rocky that a man of a lesser character would have been floored and quit.
But not Duarte, who traveled thousands of miles and took a detour just to reach his destiny.
There was homesickness he had to fight. There was a language barrier he had to breach. Then fatherhood — a life-altering responsibility — fell on his lap just as when he was about to make his jump from JUCO to a mid-major program in Oregon.
But through all of it, his family and his extended family stuck with him.