Welcome home, ‘Fonz.
It's been a circuitous—and often hazardous—route, from the far West Side of Chicago, through Europe, China, northwest Mexico, Canada, some of the NBA's most famous locales, and most recently with the Mexico City G-league team and now back where it all started, on the West Side of Chicago.
With the latest Bulls virus hardship exception, the Bulls Friday signed Marshall High School—the rare NBA player about whom we can't say high school star—student/athlete Alfonzo McKinnie.
Though the 29-year-old is a bit more that just another graduate now as the 6-7 forward joins his fifth NBA team, three of which won championships the season immediately before or after McKinnie played with them.
Is it kismet?
"It doesn't matter where you start," McKinnie told me during tenures with the Windy City Bulls and Raptors and Warriors. "You just have to keep working hard day in and day out. Wait for the right opportunity to present itself. And when it does, take full advantage of it and see what happens. My mother and grandparents instilled in me which path I should take and I fought every day to stay on the right path. I always loved the West Side, but I always saw myself making it out of there. I looked at basketball as the outlet. Same with anything. I wanted to be one of those guys who worked hard and make it out and then come back and show the kids if you do work hard you don't need a big college, you don't need to be highly recruited. If you work hard someone will notice. You never know who's watching."
It should be Bulls fans after the Bulls this weekend return from playing the Miami Heat Saturday.
With the epidemic of positive tests for the virus, McKinnie was the second addition after Stanley Johnson to ease the roster shortage. Second addition, but perhaps first in our hearts for not only McKinnie's return home, but his inspirational story that carried him not only to play in Luxembourg, and for the worst team in their lowest division, in Mexico and to buy a chance for $175 to tryout for the G-league Windy City Bulls.
On the way to vindication when with the Warriors early in the 2018-19 season, McKinnie returned home to surprise his mother with a new home thanks to his new NBA earnings, and then surprise the Bulls in a 25-point Warriors win with his career highs of 19 points and 10 rebounds.
The Bulls probably don't expect much from the athletic and springy McKinnie if he even gets an opportunity to play. But if he's called upon he brings more playoff experience than much of the Bulls roster, 24 games with the Warriors and Lakers, and he'll bring all he has.
Which is how you get from a nowhere basketball future to the NBA.
Alfonzo McKinney has spent time with the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, and Cleveland Cavaliers.
"Never give up on your dreams," McKinnie said. "There were times when I was in Luxembourg I wanted to give up. I wanted to go home and not come back. I had to fight through it. It was the goal going to the (then) D-league and trying to do well. A lot of younger guys don't have the offers they want; they ask me about what to do, try the D-league, go overseas? I tell them no matter what situation you are in, you have to go at it and attack it every day, put the work in and try to do your best. It's that way in everything you try in life. Be ready. Watch your Ps and Qs, work hard and be consistent, and you can do it."
McKinnie is certainly one example.
He started high school at Curie and finished at Marshall, where he averaged a modest 11 points. He wasn't much recruited, but got an opportunity at Eastern Illinois and then transferred to what seemed a higher level at Wisconsin-Green Bay. Still not quite mid-major. But a couple of torn meniscus knee injuries ended, it seemed, any hopes for a hoops career. McKinnie went to a few Euroleague tryout camps during the NBA Las Vegas Summer League and got a call from the coach of the worst team in Luxembourg, something of a little triangle of a country bordering Belgium, Germany and France. Apparently, it had never made any of McKinnie's geography books. Or, at least, he hadn't noticed.
"When people found out I went to Luxembourg, they didn't know where Luxembourg was," McKinnie said with a laugh. "I didn't know where it was, either. You go to a place like that and people kind of fall back and forget about you; no one checks in. Nobody wants to know what's going on in Luxembourg. I had a few guys I was playing with there tell me I shouldn't be there, that I was on another level. But at the time it was my only option and something I had to get through every day and improve."
It was tough. The gyms weren't as good as the ones he played in during high school, and his teammates had day jobs to support themselves and often couldn't get away for practices. Welcome to being a professional basketball player. He averaged 26 points, ran and dunked and most everyone including teammates stood around and marveled.
When he returned home a friend was waiting to say there were basketball jobs in Mexico. It being summer on the West Side, his family agreed Mexico might be safer, so go. You just couldn't go out by yourself there. McKinnie then hooked on with a USA Basketball three-on-three team for a tournament in China and hanging around back home was sought out by former Bulls player and executive Randy Brown to fill out some workouts with the Bulls 2016-17 Bulls team. Brown suggested McKinnie give the startup Windy City G-league team a try. So McKinnie forked over the $175 tryout fee, made the team and then the G-league All-Star game after averaging about 15 points and nine rebounds for Windy City.
Alfonzo McKinnie finishes a layup while on the Windy City Bulls.
And then with a bunch of NBA tryouts, back to the G-league, and then an end of the roster odyssey with the Raptors, Warriors, Cavaliers and Lakers. McKinnie has played in 165 NBA games, averaging four points and 2.6 rebounds. He even shot 41 percent on threes in 39 games in his last NBA stint with the Lakers last season. And not too proud to keep working, this time with the new G-league team in Mexico City that because of the virus hasn't been able to be in Mexico City but was barnstorming around the US.
So you think the Bulls have had a tough run? And McKinnie still is sprinting.