After 10 years of hard work in the NBA's minor league playing for the South Bay Lakers, Andre Ingram has at last gotten the call. The 32-year-old G League veteran will suit up to join the Los Angeles Lakers in their final two games of the season, Yahoo Sports reports.
The South Bay Lakers general manager Nick Mazzella delivered the news to Ingram alongside the rest of the coaching staff in a touching video posted to the Lakers' Twitter page. The accompanying message reads, "You stay on the grind and at the end of your 10th year, you finally get the call. Andre Ingram never stopped persevering and now his @NBA dream is a reality."
"No wonder why those two big guys are back there," Ingram responded, gesturing to Lakers president Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka.
As Mazzella pointed out in the video, Ingram earned the promotion after shooting at an impressive 48 percent beyond the arc this season with South Bay. He also holds the active record for the most three-pointers in the G League with 713 throughout his 10 seasons. The next closest player has 437.
"I know all of you guys went to bat for me," Ingram, wearing a shirt that says "Always in pursuit," told his coaching staff in the video. "That's why it means so much." The father of two then called his wife to tell her the news and informed the camera crew that she was screaming on the other end.
Ingram will be hoping for some playing time Tuesday night during the first game against the Houston Rockets.
"Everyone season I have genuinely thought, 'This could be it,'" he told reporters after a shoot-around with the team earlier in the day. "That's why I hung around. That's why I kept coming back."
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