On warm January mornings in Melbourne, Australia, Jordan McRae would wake up, whip up a snack in his kitchen, and flip on NBA League Pass. From over 10,000 miles away, he’d watch Sixers games, studying the team’s plays, its tendencies, and the players he hoped would soon become his teammates.

Now, he’s one step closer to that goal, having signed with Philadelphia’s Development League affiliate, the Delaware 87ers, on Thursday.

McRae was selected by the Sixers with the 58th-overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. He played with the team during the Summer League in Las Vegas last July, averaging 21.0 points in four games and earning second-team honors at the conclusion of the tournament. But despite his strong play, he and the team decided that it would be best for his development for him to begin his career abroad.

Enter Darryl McDonald, the Harlem-born head coach of Melbourne United. McDonald moved halfway across the globe in 1994, joining then second-year coach of the North Melbourne Giants Brett Brown as a free agent after three post-collegiate seasons with the Oklahoma City Cavalry and Sioux Falls Skyforce of the Continental Basketball League. He’d spend the next 14 years of his life playing point guard in the NBL, hoisting three championship trophies and earning a host of individual honors. After retiring as a player in 2008, he quickly transitioned into a career in coaching, and when he was hired as the head man for Melbourne United last summer, Brown knew he was just the person to help McRae take his game to the next level.

The 23-year-old signed a deal with United in late August and made his debut with the team on October 12. In 27 NBL games between that date and the team’s regular season finale on February 22, McRae showed off the top-notch scoring ability that made him one of the SEC’s most impactful players as a senior in 2013-14. His 19.9 points per game were second only to former NBA swingman Josh Childress, who averaged 21.1 points per game for the Sidney Kings this season.

“It was a good experience, just getting to be a pro and learning how the game is played at that level,” McRae told Sixers.com about his experience playing for Coach McDonald. “I got to have the ball in my hands a lot, so I had to work on my decision-making with the ball, and that helped me out a lot too.”

On Wednesday, McRae boarded a 20-hour flight from Melbourne to his hometown of Savannah, Georgia. But the stay wasn’t a long one. After a few days with friends and family, he hopped on another plane, this time for a far shorter flight.

On Saturday, he arrived in Newark, Delaware to join his new team, but a holdup with his D-League paperwork kept him from suiting up for their game that night against the Canton Charge.

With a month left in the D-League regular season, McRae is focused on finishing strong with the Sevens and gearing up for Summer League with the Sixers in July. And after watching the team that drafted him struggle from afar, he’s itching for a shot to prove that he can be part of the team’s future.

“It was difficult, just always feeling like you could come back [and help the team],” he said when asked about the most trying aspects of his season with Melbourne. “Other than that, being away from my family was hard.”

“Hard” is an understatement.

When McRae departed for Australia, he left behind his girlfriend, Nicole, who was seven months pregnant. It was a tough decision, but the opportunity was one that the two agreed was too important for Jordan to pass up. When she unexpectedly went into labor in early December, two weeks before her due date, he hopped on the first plane back to the United States to be with her. A healthy Jordan, Jr. was born while his father was en route to Tennessee.

"It’s tough knowing that [Nicole] was going through all of that by herself, but she had good family supporting her so she was alright," McRae said at the time to Roy Ward of The Age.

McRae flew back to Melbourne a few days later, but Nicole and Jordan, Jr. joined him in Australia about a month later for the final weeks of the season. Fatherhood helped him grow up quickly, but the first few months he spent Down Under also allowed him to mature as a person and as a professional.

“Living on your own, there’s really nobody there to push you, to force you to get in the gym, so you have to be really self-motivated” he said. “I got a chance to learn how to be a pro, and here I’ll look to do the same.

McRae is expected to make his debut with the Sevens on Friday, when the team hosts the Fort Wayne Mad Ants at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Delaware.