Cal Poly Alum Chris O'Brien Takes Unique Path To Professional Ranks
“I’m writing a story on Chris O’Brien.”
“You’re two years late,” chuckled Cal Poly men’s basketball coach Joe Callero.
Why two years late?
The Cal Poly alum had last suited up in a Mustang jersey on March 20, 2013 versus Weber State in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
O’Brien hadn’t played organized basketball in over a year. But, this wasn’t the first time he found himself away from the game.
Since graduating from Northwood High School in the spring of 2007, O’Brien had spent every other year without officially stepping foot on a court.
Interesting for an athlete who played Division I basketball, and who had just signed his first professional contract to play with Fuerza Regia in Monterey, Mexico.
Unconventional? Yes.
Unheard of? Maybe.
Too late? Never.
High School Standout
As the son of a high school basketball coach, Tim O’Brien, Chris grew up with the sport and watched more games than he did cartoons as a kid.
Come high school, Chris earned a spot on the varsity squad as a freshman under his father’s leadership – making it a tough but rewarding road for the younger O’Brien.
Remembering a few postgame moments in high school playing under his father, Chris recalls catching rides with his mother and younger sister Devyn when he and his coach would rather drive separately home from the gym.
Chris developed tough skin under Tim and developed even more as a player – playing everything from the one to the four spot at Northwood. Having come in as a freshman on varsity, Chris accepted the challenge to prove that he earned his spot himself – nothing was ever handed to him because of his last name.
A captain and starter his senior year in 2007, Chris graduated with the promise of playing at Princeton come fall of 2008.
Chris spent that next year under the impression that he would play for the Tigers under coach Sydney Johnson. As a grey shirt from fall of 2007 to the spring of 2008, O’Brien did not register for any classes or play any organized sports.
Year one of organized basketball’s absence.
Press Pause
“That year was the biggest year of my life,” said Chris recalling the year following his graduation from Northwood. Living at home at 18 years old, Chris was oftentimes the only one on the block as his classmates and friends were all off living their freshman years at the colleges of their choice.
But, O’Brien got creative and found ways to keep himself disciplined, engaged and fit. When he wasn’t at the gym, he was in Barnes and Nobles getting his hands on anything that related to basketball in one way or another. As he claims himself, Chris became a basketball junkie in those months spent on the sideline.
As positive as the high school graduate always was, the days became routine and long and repetitive.
On days the grind was overwhelming and ambiguous, Chris turned to three things: his faith, his family and three words his father always preached – patience, diligence, confidence.
While planning to head back east come fall, there was still a level of uncertainty as to whether or not Johnson would be able to bring O’Brien on the squad.
“I was 18 years old and had no plan except hopefully, hopefully go to Princeton. Which didn’t work out,” recalls O’Brien.
In March of 2008 Chris was at the grocery store when he received a phone call from coach Johnson.
Chris hung up the phone, paralyzed by what he just heard. Johnson was unable to get O’Brien into the institution and the California native would not be attending or playing at Princeton.
“Everything, it just stopped.”
Light At The End Of The Tunnel
After catching the eye of the University of San Francisco at two late AAU tournaments in Denver and Las Vegas in the spring of 2008, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Come fall, Chris would be a Don under coach Rex Walters and would be playing after missing just a single season.
“At the time I had a big chip on my shoulder. I had a boulder.”
That year Chris started 20 of 29 games averaging 4.1 points and 2.9 rebounds per contest. The Dons went 11-19 overall and 3-11 in conference.
While O’Brien enjoyed his first year in the Bay, he didn’t feel like it would be a fit for the remainder of his collegiate career.
Cal Poly Calls
“There was something in my mind that said go to Cal Poly.”
After his freshman campaign at San Francisco, Chris decided to pursue other options and something pointed to central California.
Cal Poly was years from being the team that garnered national attention after winning the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament game last season, but regardless, O’Brien wanted a spot on the Mustang roster.
As head coach Joe Callero moved from Seattle to San Luis Obispo that same offseason, O’Brie
n became a part of a new Mustang era.
Signing with a class that included names such as Drake U’u, Kyle Odister and Dylan Royer, Cal Poly welcomed the group that would upset UCLA at Pauley Pavilion some three seasons later.
Compliant with NCAA transfer rules, O’Brien spent the next year on the bench a redshirt.
Year two of organized basketball’s absence.
No Sophomore Slump
O’Brien pulled a Cal Poly jersey over his head for the first time in 2010. It felt like it had been forever since the now redshirt sophomore laced up his kicks on game day.
Chris started 26 of 30 games his sophomore year averaging 27.4 minutes, 5.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game while leading the Mustangs with an 80.6 percent success rate from the line and a 1.53-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
“He’s like a utility infielder,” said Callero. “We could play him anywhere. We could put him on a point guard, we could defensively have him guard a three-man. Offensively, he was a guy that could pass the ball. He could set a screen. He could hit a shot.”
It didn’t take long for O’Brien to adjust.
Bench-ridden
When O’Brien tore his ACL in practice at the beginning of what would have been his junior season, the injury sidelined the guard for the remainder of the 2011-2012 campaign – year three of basketball’s absence.
A veteran at this point at bouncing back, O’Brien knew he had what it would take to get back on the court.
Patience. Diligence. Confidence.
After surgery, months of rehab and fine-tuning his nutrition, Chris worked his way back into the rotation for his senior year on a team that now started Jamal Johnson, Chris Eversley and Brian Bennett.
The First Time The Dark Horse Dreamed Big
When asked what his favorite collegiate, basketball experience was, O’Brien answered without hesitation, Nov. 25, 2012.
Perhaps because on that night, the Mustangs upset No. 11 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion and enjoyed some 48 hours of being the team to talk about in the sports world.
Coming back from an 18-point deficit in the second half, the Mustangs left the nation’s top-rated freshman class with their jaws on the floor.
“The Mustangs upset the Bruins 70-68 in Westwood,” read the LA Times the next morning. Cal Poly was everywhere from espn.com’s homepage to USA Today, the Huffington Post, bleacherreport.com and Yahoo.
“We’d never been on that kind of stage before, and then we were on it,” said O’Brien recalling the “corner of green and gold” that erupted in pure elation after the Bruins missed the shot to tie it at the buzzer.
As Callero threw his arms in the air and looked toward Pauley’s ceiling, the Mustangs caught a glimpse of the attention the sports world would send their way in a year and a couple month’s time when, for the first time in program history, they won the Big West Tournament and a game in the NCAA Tournament.
The Mustangs finished the 2012-2013 campaign 18-14 overall, going 12-6 in conference, in O’Brien’s senior year. The Mustangs saw their season end at the hands of the eventual champions, Pacific, in a heartbreaking 55-53 loss in the semifinals of the Big West Tournament. O’Brien had 11 points that night, just second to teammate Eversley who led the pack with 12. The senior pulled down five boards, equaling any Mustang that night.
He would suit up just once more in his Cal Poly getup at the CIT.
For Chris, this was the end of the road. He was ready to experience life after basketball…or so he thought.
From Sneakers To Slacks
Chris stood up quickly from his desk, and thrust his clutched fist in the air. The Mustangs were going to the 2014 Big West Tournament finals. Chris had watched all of the Honda Center’s action from his desk at CG Commercial Finance in Irvine, Calif.
“I had my whole company following it,” said O’Brien. “I turned my whole company into Cal Poly fans.”
A full-time employee back in his hometown, the fourth year of organized basketball’s absence, O’Brien believed that his playing days were over.
But, he couldn’t pass up a chance to see his former teammates when they rode a bus to his neck of the woods for a chance to avenge the semifinal gut-wrencher from the season before versus Pacific.
Chris was there the night the Mustangs made history once again, becoming the lowest seed to take a Big West Tournament.
“Just seeing them have success, that’s what you want,” said Chris. “Especially the guys you’ve gone to war with. They’ve paid their dues.”
Sitting in the stands, watching the competition below re-hooked the versatile guard who was on that same stage a year before.
“I missed it,” said O’Brien. “Absence makes the heart grow stronger. I think being away from the game for a year relit my fire.”
It was as if Chris never missed a beat. Not used to having downtime, O’Brien kept a busy schedule by working 10-hour days at the office, organizing and running youth basketball camps and finding the time to stay active.
O’Brien found himself at his high school alma mater quite frequently, using the track in one - way or another. Putting up shots in the gym. Using the weight room. O’Brien even carried a big gym bag full of “toys”: hurdles, weight resistant bands, cones.
As a full-fledged businessman, O’Brien made a promise to himself that he would break a sweat once a day.
While O’Brien became a fixture at the gym and the track, people started taking notice and began inquiring as to whether they could join in on the workouts – some even asked if he would be willing to train their young athlete.
While fitness is a passion of O’Brien’s, he always welcomed the company. The southern California native started a fitness program, COBfit, a name that paid homage to a nickname derived from shortening his first and last names – a very popular nickname for O’Brien among the Mustangs.
O’Brien’s attention to fitness and nutrition, is as he calls it, his “little secret.” With an ultimate goal of opening up his own gym one day, he’s known to work in activities such as runs on the beach, hikes, stairs, hills, yoga and sprints, saying that this summer he typically worked out two to three times a day, sometimes even four times within a 24-hour window.
Even as a businessman, “athlete” was never a title he readily retired.
The Dotted Line
In December of 2013, Chris received an unsolicited message from his former housemate and teammate, Dylan Royer’s, head coach in Mexico. The coach expressed his interest in O’Brien and asked if he would be interested in playing professionally.
At the time, Chris politely responded that he was uninterested in pursuing playing time, but that did not deter said coach.
Royer had signed with Fuerza Regia following graduation and as it turns out, had mentioned O’Brien to his coach.
While O’Brien was adamant that his playing days were behind him, sometime between December and early summer, something changed O’Brien’s mind.
Maybe it was Ridge Shipley draining a three in that historic Big West Tournament finale.
Or Kyle Odister putting away his two free throws with just seconds remaining on the clock.
Perhaps it was watching Eversley sign his first professional contract with the KL Dragons.
Whatever it was, Chris wanted to play.
A few months later, passport at the ready, documents in place, contract in hand…
Chris signed on the dotted line.
Two Years Too Late
“I think he’s going to be very successful because of the year he sat out,” said Callero. “Sometimes if you go directly to the professional ranks, you miss the college experience. And I think now he’s missing basketball.”
O’Brien’s sideline days are over.
O’Brien’s signing in August of this year makes it a total of four Cal Poly alums in the last two years to play professionally following their collegiate careers as Mustangs: O’Brien, Royer, U’u and Eversley.
Not only will O’Brien be playing on a professional stage; he’ll be suiting up alongside one of his best friends.
Said Callero on the reunited O’Brien-Royer duo on the court, “They’re the perfect compliments. They understand, not only the game of basketball, but they understand each other.
“Everything they’ll do is to try to make their team win. They get that part. Dylan’s not worried about scoring 25 points and losing. He’ll take 12 points and win the game. If it takes 25 points to win, he’ll take those shots and Chris will pass him that ball.”
Chris has every one of his friend’s pro jerseys. He says that one day he’ll give them back to the person who wore them on the court to remind them, this is where you started, and look where you are today.
And now, humbled and grateful O’Brien has his own. His own professional jersey to add to his collection of unis from San Francisco and Cal Poly.
Fuerza Regia on the front, O’Brien on the back.
Patience. Diligence. Confidence.
Too late? Never.
Story by Olivia Phelps (@OliviaGPhelps).