It was a fall day in Elk Grove, the suburban town 20 minutes of Sacramento, and Marquese Chriss was going long.

The newest Warrior was in eighth grade and playing in a game for the middle school football team. He was a promising tight end. Fast but also long, gangly. Chriss ran a deep route, went up high and sprawled out for the catch but landed awkwardly on his shoulder. The x-ray evidence was not positive: fractured collarbone.

Up until that day, all Chriss had wanted to do was play football. His father had played football. His favorite football player was Reggie Bush. But that collarbone injury would be the last injury of his football career. Chriss calls it the moment that changed his life. His mom put an end to his football career and pushed him toward basketball instead.

“That’s the biggest thing that happened to change my life, was getting hurt,” Chriss told Bay Area News Group. “At the time you think ‘Damn, I don’t get to play football anymore.’ That’s something I wanted to do my whole life and now I got to play basketball.”

Thus began a slow start to Chriss’ hoops transition, a continued trend at the highest level. After playing for three different NBA teams in three years, Chriss was a free agent this past summer and almost out of the league.

But the Warriors saw something they liked, offered him an opportunity to make the team and signed him to a training camp contract. The returns on this reclamation project of a former No. 8 team playing for his fourth NBA team were very good. Now he’s set to not only make the team, but to play a prominent role this season.

***

The gymnasium at Pleasant Grove High is decorated with Chriss’ team’s achievements. In 2013, he helped bring a state championship to the school. Today, a team photograph hangs in the gym and a decal celebrating the title adorns the court.

After four years at Pleasant Grove, Chriss was one of the top-50-or-so basketball recruits in the country. But it didn’t start that way.

As a freshman, Chriss arrived to tryouts as one of 20-plus kids hoping to make the 12-man junior varsity team. Chriss had never played organized basketball — he was a football player — but he was tall and athletic.

“I was so used to playing ’21’ at the park with my friends,” Chriss said. “Having structure was real different but I think, over time, I grew to understand the game a little bit more and it just became easier.”

Because he was tall and athletic, Chriss made the team, but just barely. At first he hardly played and then, as Chriss remembers it, one of the players ahead of him on the depth chart got booted for bad grades. “So then I just ended up playing a bunch.” By the end of the year, Chriss was starting for the JV team, and then played for the varsity team in the playoffs.

The next season, the rising sophomore started on varsity, helping Pleasant Grove finish with a 28-6 record and capture the school’s first Division I state championship. Then the college recruiters started calling.

A player who just a few years ago had never played organized basketball became one of the most tantalizing basketball talents in Northern California. But he’d have to overcome a disappointing senior year.

Pleasant Grove hired a new coach, and the two didn’t see eye-to-eye on his role. Chriss and his coach regularly got into screaming matches. It was a stark contrast to Chriss’ congenial personality off the court. As one person with knowledge of those years said, Chriss was among the most respectful students in school but, when he was on the court, he changed. His competitive fire burned. “You could say he had a short fuse,” they said.

That didn’t hamper bigtime interest, including from the University of Washington, where he ended up. At Washington, Chriss had one of the greatest freshman seasons in program history, finishing with the fourth-most points, fifth-most rebounds and the most blocked shots by a freshman.

Less than a year after stepping onto campus, at 19 years old, Chriss bid adieu to the final three years of college and declared for the NBA Draft. He was taken No. 8 overall by the Phoenix Suns.

Suddenly, Chriss was back to where he was when he walked into the Pleasant Grove gym as a high school freshman. Most NBA players have been playing their whole life. Chriss didn’t pick up the game until he was 12. He’d only been playing organized basketball for seven years. He was overmatched.

***

The first three years of Chriss’ career were a struggle. After making the All-Rookie second team, the Suns cut his playing time and his role. “Mentally, it was tough for me,” Chriss said.

He was eventually traded to the Rockets. Frustrated with his lack of playing time, Chriss asked the front office to trade him. After playing in just 16 games, he was traded to the Cavaliers.

The most memorable moment from his time in Cleveland came when he was ejected for his involvement in a fight with Raptors forward Serge Ibaka. The two had gotten tangled going up for a loose ball. Ibaka fell, and Chriss stared him down. Ibaka got up and went for Chriss’ throat, Chriss threw a punch, and the altercation spilled onto the sideline. The two had to be broken up and escorted off the court.

Serge Ibaka and Marquese Chriss were ejected after throwing punches 😳 pic.twitter.com/UmYCp8wJA6 — SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 12, 2019

After playing in 43 up-and-down games for both teams, and averaging just 4.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, Chriss didn’t have many offers as a free agent this summer. He signed a training camp contract with the Warriors, who told him he’d have a chance to make the team.

Similar to when he walked into that gym as a gangly high school freshman, Chriss made the most of an opportunity. Preseason injuries to Willie Cauley-Stein and Kevon Looney opened up the door to playing time.

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Coach Steve Kerr, impressed with Chriss’ screen setting and passing abilities, inserted Chriss into the starting lineup after one preseason game. Chriss showed an innate feel for the Warriors offense, finding shooters and cutters with regularity, becoming a hub for offense. For someone who had become marginalized after failing to live up to his lottery-pick expectations, Chriss seems to finally be in his comfort zone 10 years after picking up organized basketball for the first time.

“They told me they would give me a fair shot to make the team. I think they’ve done that. They’ve put me in a position to succeed,” Chriss said. “I thought, coming here, they play the way I like to play.”