Dionte Christmas is a man on a mission. The former Temple Owls guard has not stopped at his pursuit of basketball success since going undrafted in 2009, making multiple NBA stints and starring overseas for a multitude of seasons.
Competing for Team FOE, which is coached by NBA twins Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris, Christmas was at Philadelphia University on Sunday for the Northeast Regional of The Basketball Tournament (TBT) the day after returning from NBA Summer League action. FOE advanced to Thursday's Super 16 with a 102-94 win over Team Maryland on Sunday, with Christmas scoring 13 points in 20 minutes. Afterward, the 29-year-old agreed to speak with VAVEL USA about his basketball career.
The interview
"It’s showing now more and more that the four-year guys are coming right in prepared to play."
Zach Drapkin (ZD): You went four years at Temple and then undrafted. Now, there are many more guys doing one-and-dones and getting drafted high-up into the league. What’s your take on players doing that nowadays and how it affects the quality of basketball?
Dionte Christmas (DC): If you’re good enough, go, man. Sometimes you miss that opportunity, that window; it’s a small window. But I also think that playing four years helps you develop your game a lot. I was watching a lot of Summer League games and it was stressing that some of the one-and-done guys, they had come in the league and they would rather sit for three or four years instead of just staying in school and developing. You have guys like the kid [Denzel] Valentine from Michigan State. He’s ready. He came out and he’s good. I think he’s good enough to play. I think even [Doug] McDermott, I don’t think he was one and done, he did, what, three or four years of school? He came right in and played, and you see how well he played. It’s showing now more and more that the four-year guys are coming right in prepared to play. But this league is built on potential, the NBA is built on potential, so they have guys coming out one-and-done and they just wait for the potential. For the most part, those guys end up being good players, but for some, not so much.
ZD: You talk about seeing people in Summer League. If players don’t get signed by an NBA team after the Summer League, what are the pros and cons of going to the NBA D-League as opposed to overseas?
DC: It just depends. The con is the money. The money’s not great. You just have to have a mindset going in of what you want, you want to go in and get better, try to get that call-up. The pro is that every team is there watching every night. So you just have to show your professionalism, that you can play. If you can play basketball, they will find you. There are a lot of guys like the kid Tim Frazier, for instance, that went to the D-League, played really well. Now he just signed a two-year deal worth $4 million. There are a lot of guys that play well and get signed and there are a lot of guys who go through there and take it the wrong way, they just end up not using it the right way.
ZD: What’s the difference basketball-wise between playing in the NBA as opposed to overseas?
DC: It’s a big difference. You’ve got games, you’ve got practices, the style of play, how hard guys play. Every night overseas, it’s like a playoff game. You have to win over there. In the NBA, it gets rough in the playoffs but during the season it’s pretty much mediocre. I wouldn’t say mediocre but it’s just not as intense as the playoffs. Overseas, every game is the playoffs. You play a lot of games, you’re over there longer, 10 months. NBA is only six months. It’s a lot. You’ve just got to be ready for it and mentally, you have to be mentally strong for it.
"Going into the NBA, I knew I would be a guy sitting in the corner, making jump shots, and playing defense."
ZD: How do you weigh having a larger role at a club overseas as opposed to having maybe a smaller role for an NBA team?
DC: Well, I kind of was a guy like that. When I was overseas, I was a 20-point scorer in Greece and Israel, and when I finally made the league with the Morris twins, my role lessened a lot. You just need to have that diversity in your game. I know in college I was a huge scorer. And then going into the NBA, I knew I would be a guy sitting in the corner, making jump shots, and playing defense, always being that guy to just have to stay ready and focus at all times. I just have that diversity in my game and I think that’s what made me kind of special to a lot of people. That’s why I continue to get jobs every year, in Summer League often, because teams see that.
ZD: Have you been contacted by any teams following this year’s Summer League?
DC: I just left yesterday (Saturday), so we’ll see in the next 48 hours. Utah was speaking very highly of me, they liked me a lot. Hopefully, that’d be the place I land this year, but I’m definitely getting a lot of overseas offers, so we’ll see.
ZD: You were on this past year’s Cavs team early on, you played four preseason games with them. How did you feel having played alongside those guys right before they won the championship?
DC: It was great. I still have a good relationship with the guys. I was out actually in Vegas and I was talking to T-Lue (Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue), we were actually just texting last night (Saturday night). I’ve built a great relationship with him, learned a lot. LeBron James, he deserves everything he’s getting right now. Great, hard worker. Same with Kyrie Irving, all those guys. I learned a lot from being around those guys and being with them for that short period of time. I took that and now I’m just taking bits and pieces from everybody. From Iman Shumpert, he was a guy I was talking to a lot. He’s a great guy. Kevin Love, he’s quiet but he’s good. He’s a hard-worker, a leader. All those guys. It was fun being around that group of guys. You could see that those guys really like each other and they want to win. So that was cool.
"There's a 60-40 chance I end up signing with an NBA team this year. I'll take those odds."
ZD: Do you think any of the players have given recommendations for you to return to the Cavs?
DC: I hope. T-Lue and I keep in contact. T-Lue actually gave me my first real NBA job when I was with Boston, so he gave me a shot. When he knew I was home last year, he called me and gave me another shot. I appreciate him a lot for that. Like I said, I’ve built great relationships with those guys. So hopefully they did.
ZD: What are the chances in your mind that you do end up signing with an NBA team this year?
DC: 60-40. The way I played, I played really well in mini-camp with Utah. I went to Summer League, played really well; if you watched the games, I did really well. So hopefully, there’s a 60-40 chance. I’ll take those odds.