Brandon Jennings started his NBA career as a mystery project since he opted to play overseas after high school, which is not the typical route players go to. But when his rookie season began, he turned a lot of heads as he played like a veteran and even scored 55 points in a game early in 2009-2010.

He showed a lot of promise in his first few seasons in the league with the Milwaukee Bucks but could not lead them to the playoffs. Jennings then moved on and played for two other teams in four injury-plagued seasons. Now that he is part of the New York Knicks, he admitted only receiving an offer from them because of the history of injuries he's had. Via Al Iannazzone of Newsday:

“Actually I didn’t get any offers from any other team but New York. A lot was because of my Achilles, nobody knew how healthy I was and things like that. I definitely put in the time this summer, lost a lot of weight. I made sure I was ready. When Phil (Jackson) called, I was like ‘Yo, I’m coming.’ It was a no-brainer . . . Shoot, I would have come here for a million. It didn’t matter. I just wanted to be in an NBA uniform and be somewhere where I had a chance to win, and New York City — why not?”

With the lack of interest from other teams, Jennings feels like he has a chip on his shoulders and that he needs to prove to all his doubters that he still belongs in the league and deserves his roster spot.

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“I definitely do. It was 29 teams that didn’t want me so I definitely have a chip on my shoulder, and I definitely want to prove to everybody that I’m back and I’m healthy and I’m just a team player.”

He has definitely shown the intensity during his team's preseason games and is becoming one of the crowd-favorites in New York. The 27-year-old also holds a lot of optimism for the Knicks this season and feels happy to be playing with All-Star teammates.

“Just having fun again. I’ve never played with All-Stars like Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. I told Melo I’ve never played with a guy who can go get 30 a night. I’m definitely excited about that. Now that I know I have dogs behind me that’s going to ride with me, I can just be myself.”

There are loads of expectations from the Knicks this season having a retooled roster. They are now considered as one of the teams who will compete for the Eastern Conference crown. With Jennings in their fold, one thing the team can be sure of is having a back-up point guard ready to give his all, night in and night out.