Former New Jersey school boy star Derrick Caracter has made a few stops during his basketball career.
Now he’s headed to the NBA D-League.
The Lakers on Wednesday assigned the 6-foot-9 Caracter to their D-League affiliate, the Los Angeles Defenders.
Caracter, the 58th pick of the 2010 NBA Draft, appeared in 41 games for the Lakers last season, averaging 2.1 points and 1.0 rebounds in 5.2 minutes.
Caracter has yet to play this year for the Lakers because he underwent surgery Dec. 14 to remove part of a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee. He sustained the injury two days before training camp started in December.
Caracter spent two stints with the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League last season.
Caracter was a national star by the time he was in the eighth grade and then bounced around from Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick to Scotch Plains-Fanwood and Notre Dame Prep (Mass.).
“In 10th grade, I started getting spoiled a bit,” he told SNY.tv in 2009. “Maybe 10th to 11th grade, that was the only time I was arrogant and a little full of myself. That’s also the time I put on 15-20 pounds. Sophomore year I was probably like 260. Junior year I was 285. I went to the camps. I didn’t do all my workouts. I didn’t put any extra work in.”
After signing with Louisville, Caracter fell out of favor with head coach Rick Pitino over concerns about his weight and work ethic, and completed his college career at UTEP.
