Former Eastern Washington standout Angelo Allegri signs Exhibit 10 contract with Charlotte Hornets
Angelo Allegri worked out for the Charlotte Hornets the first week of May, and when they parted the NBA team gave him no promises of what might come next.
“I went down there and I thought I had a really good workout,” Allegri said by phone Friday from his family home in Kansas City, Missouri. “I could just feel the energy. It just felt good.”
Still, he didn’t have any indication it would lead to what came Friday – a contract offer.
A first-team All-Big Sky selection last year for Eastern Washington, Allegri agreed to terms on an Exhibit 10 contract with the Hornets, he said, confirming a report earlier in the day from DraftExpress.com.
He will head to North Carolina on Wednesday.
“It’s just surreal,” Allegri said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
When he heard the news, Allegri was with his mother and his girlfriend – who has been with him since he started his college career at UNC Greensboro – and he said they were more emotional than he was.
“It’s good to be around family when you get good news,” he said. “It’s very promising. But this is just the beginning. I’m ready to prove myself.”
As a senior last season, the 6-foot-7 wing Allegri averaged 13.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game while making 46.5% of his shots overall and 37.4% of his 3-point attempts. All were slight upticks from his statistics the previous year with the Eagles.
He and Big Sky MVP Steele Venters led the Eagles to a regular-season conference title and a win over Washington State in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. After the season, Venters transferred to Gonzaga.
An Exhibit 10 contract is a league-minimum, nonguaranteed deal that can be converted into a two-way contract before the season begins if the team wishes to do so. It is the same contract signed by Gonzaga’s Drew Timme (Milwaukee Bucks) and Malachi Smith (Portland Trail Blazers).
Charlotte’s Development League team plays in Greensboro, about 1½ hours from Charlotte and the same city where Allegri played his first three seasons of college basketball. This will be something of a homecoming for him, should he end up playing for the Greensboro Swarm.
“We have a lot of family there, a lot of connection there, a lot of history,” Allegri said. “It’s a big deal.”
A day after his early May workout with the Hornets, Allegri suffered a minor foot injury, which, he said, could have worsened if he pushed it. Doctors and his agent suggested to him that he rest rather than continuing to work out for the handful of other teams who had expressed interest in him, Allegri said.
“That was hard to do, man,” Allegri said.
But it worked out, and Allegri will get the chance he wanted.
“Being able to play pro is a dream come true,” he said.
There are no other Eastern Washington men’s basketball players in the NBA ranks.
There have been three Eagles players selected in the NBA draft: Orlando selected Tyler Harvey 51st overall in 2015; Detroit took Rodney Stuckey 15th in 2007; and Ron Cox was taken by Cleveland in 1977, 121st overall.