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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