Alex Caruso looks more like a used car salesman than an NBA baller. He’s paler than Toaster Strudel, with a pornstache, thinning hair and total lack of ink. But here he is, playing for the Los Angeles Lakers on a two-way contract—a new wrinkle in the marriage between NBA parent teams and the rebranded G League.
It’s a long way from College Station, Texas for a 23-year-old undrafted rookie guard.
The snapshot image brings to mind shades of Woody Harrelson in “White Men Can’t Jump.” But in Caruso you’ve got a dude with an infinitely more NBA-ready game—perhaps destined for quasi-legend status someday, one of those cats who comes out of nowhere to carve out a hoops career that forever inspires commentary about how he went unnoticed in the first place.