Amherst, N.Y. - At the start of every college basketball season, there's literally thousands upon thousands of players who dream about taking their game to the professional level. While few get the opportunity to extend their careers, sending players to the professional ranks overseas has become somewhat normal over the last decade for the Daemen College men's basketball team. Former Wildcats Ajay Rutledge (Mexico, Singapore), Jorge Ebanks (England), Moustapha Baidy (France), Dom Mazzocchi (Malta) Uche Ogbonna (El Salvador) and Torrence Dyck (Switzerland, Turkey) have all found their way to overseas teams at one point or another, and 2017 graduates Supreme Hannah and Arif Mehmetaj are now attempting to join them. But, the opportunity to play professional basketball in the United States is an even steeper hill to climb, especially coming from a small, private, Division II school like Daemen; unless your name is Gerald Beverly that is.
The former Daemen great, a 2015 graduate who is one of only two players in team history to score 1,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds in a career, spent the 2016-17 season playing for the Canton Charge in the National Basketball Association Developmental League (NBA D-League). Beverly recently caught up with daemenwildcats.com for a reflection on his rookie season in the D-League.
"I had a great experience playing in the D-League this season," Beverly said. "It really turned out to be better than I thought it would. You hear stories from other players that you get treated better and paid more overseas, but I was well taken care of in Canton and I really enjoyed my time there."
Beverly, whose pro career began overseas while playing the 2015-16 season for Telekom Baskets in Bonn, Germany, was originally slated to head back to Europe. But, an opportunity to play in Slovenia fell through at the last minute. The future was suddenly uncertain for the 6-foot-8, 235-pound mountain of a man, especially considering he was coming off his second ACL injury which shortened his rookie campaign in Germany.
"I worked real hard coming off the ACL tear, and I was really anticipating going to Slovenia. When that didn't happen is when I really considered the D-League for the first time. I'm glad it worked out the way it did. The D-League kicked Slovenia's butt," Beverly says now.
Beverly was on the radar of NBA teams coming out of Daemen. He had workouts with the Phoenix Suns and Toronto Raptors leading up to the 2015 NBA Draft, and was actually linked to the New York Knicks in a report filed on ESPN.com on draft day. That NBA interest and his small body of work from Germany helped in landing him a spot in the D-League. Beverly was selected by the Los Angeles D-Fenders with the third pick in the third round (number 47 overall) of the 2016 NBA D-League Draft last October. But, after going to training camp with the D-Fenders, Beverly once again found himself on the outside looking in after being cut.
"They liked me in Los Angeles, but at the pro level I'm a 'tweener' which can make me a misfit for some teams. I'm probably a little undersized to be a true power forward, but that's what my skill set says I should be. Being cut was a disappointment. I mean, who wouldn't want to live in L.A. where it's 75 degrees and sunny almost every day? But, I didn't let it get me down. I tried to take the training camp experience and the feedback I got from the coaches there and apply it to my game," said Beverly.
A short time after parting ways with the D-Fenders, opportunity knocked again as Beverly was claimed off waivers by Canton where he quickly got indoctrinated to the D-League way of life.
"It was kind of crazy. I had like one or two practices in with the team and all of sudden it was game time," said Beverly who scored 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds during his Charge debut on November 18 against the Grand Rapids Drive.
"I was a little star-struck at first. I mean, you look at the guys you're playing with and against and these are guys I've watched on TV playing D1 ball in college, guys I've watching in the NCAA Tournament," Beverly said, noting a few of his high-profile teammates such as Quinn Cook (Duke University), Eric Moreland (Oregon University), Jonathan Holmes (University of Texas) and former first round NBA Draft pick Larry Sanders (Virginia Commonwealth University). "Being the D2 guy is a label that I've always embraced, but it can make it tough to fit in at first. Once I got playing I felt like I proved to myself and my teammates that I belonged."
Beverly went on to appear in 40 regular season games for the Charge over the following four months. He averaged 4.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 11.6 minutes per game while shooting 59.2 percent from the field. In the regular season finale on April 1 against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Beverly scored a season-high 17 points on 8-of-9 shooting in just 22 minutes. His development throughout the season was pleasing to the organization's coaches and front office personnel.
"We liked Gerald in the draft," said Mike Gansey, general manager of the Canton Charge, in a recent article written by Michael Clark for CantonCharge.com. "He was one of our top bigs on our board. We loved his physicality, athleticism and rebounding. When L.A. waived him, he was somebody we looked at and eventually brought in. It turned out to be a great move."
Beverly's play helped the Charge to a 29-21 record, good for a third-place finish in the Central Division and a berth in the D-League playoffs.
"We do not reach the playoffs without Gerald," Gansey said.
In the playoffs, Canton bowed out by falling in the first two games of their opening round, best-of-three series against Raptors 905. Despite the setbacks, Beverly impressed by averaging 9.0 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 75 percent from the field. Edy Tavares, a 7-foot-3 center for Raptors 905 whom Beverly was matched up with often, later received a call-up to the NBA, signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The impression Beverly made wasn't limited to the team's GM and coaches. It stretched to his teammates as well.
"Gerald was good," teammate Michael Dunigan, a 6-foot-10 center out of the University of Oregon, said in Clark's piece at CantonCharge.com. "He came in and lifted on his own, got shots up on his own and would grab the coaches to do extra work. Just having that mindset and work ethic will go a long way for his career."
Beverly was quick to credit assistant coach Melvin Ely, a nine-year NBA veteran, with aiding in his development as a player this season.
"Coach Ely puts in a lot of work with me and the other bigs," Beverly said. "Being able to work with a guy like him who has played at the highest level has been really good for my game. I owe a lot to him for what he helped me accomplish this season."
And, just like his time at Daemen, it didn't take long for the high-flying, powerful dunker to become a fan favorite in Canton. A fan-run Twitter account, @Charge_Nation, named Beverly the 2017 Charge Nation Fan Favorite after conducting a Twitter poll on the topic last month.
Looking forward, Beverly's next landing spot remains an open-ended question at this point. He says he's open to returning to Canton and the D-League, but the possibility also exists for him to potentially land overseas again.
"We'll just have to see how it plays out," Beverly says.
One thing is certain, his present focus is trying to gain an invitation to play in one of the NBA's two summer leagues, traditionally held in Las Vegas and Orlando. The NBA Summer League is where diamonds in the rough like Beverly meet the league's up-and-coming players and top draft picks for a week or 10 days worth of competition, giving them the opportunity for instruction from NBA-level coaches and to be seen by the league's executives. For most, it's an opportunity to show what you've got in hopes of gaining an invitation to an NBA training camp come the fall.
"The NBA is still a dream at this point, but it's what I'm focused on," Beverly said. "I just want to work every day so I can put myself in position to make my dream come true. Catching on with a team for the summer league would be huge for me. I feel like I proved 100 percent that I can play in the D-League. Now it's just a matter of taking my game to the next level."
Provided by the Daemen Sports Information Department.
