Baseball has always been the dominate sport in the Dominican Republic, since the early 1900s there have been hundreds of Dominican born players that played for major league baseball, but not Indiana Pacer’s rookie star, Chris Duarte, he choose a not so common path and embraced the game of basketball, all the way to make it to the NBA, becoming only the 10th Dominican to do so.
While Duarte was born in Montreal but raised in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, he and his family moved to New York so Chris could finish his last two years of high school basketball. An only child, Duarte has been able to focus all his attention to basketball.
While at Redemption Christian Academy, he rose through the ranks and earned the No. 4 ranking in the state of New York by the end of his senior season.
In 2017, Duarte signed to Western Kentucky, but never suited up for the Hill toppers. Eventually he found a home with the Northwest Florida Junior College Raiders.
“I was mad that I was giving up two years on my life to go play basketball at a junior college in Florida,” Duarte said during a press conference.
Duarte made his debut for Oregon Ducks on November, 2019. During the 2020–21 season, Duarte led the Ducks to an appearance in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament.
On April 3, 2021, Duarte was named recipient of the 2021 Jerry West Award as the top shooting guard in men’s collegiate basketball. Duarte was additionally recognized as the AP Pac-12 Player of the Year and an AP Third Team All-America. On March 29, 2021, Oregon head coach Dana Altman indicated in a press conference that Duarte would enter the 2021 NBA draft.
Duarte was selected with the 13th pick in the 2021 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers. On August 4, 2021, he signed a rookie scale contract with the Pacers. On October 20, Duarte made his NBA debut, recording 27 points on 6–9 three point shooting, five rebounds along with a steal to set the Pacers’ franchise record for the most points in a rookie debut, in a 123–122 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. He has ruled out for the remainder of the season with a toe injury.
