None of that stopped him from dominating on the basketball court, however. It was his favorite sport and got him a college scholarship deal that fell through when he was a senior. Forced to pivot, he turned to another sports discipline — track and field — that saw him through to Michigan State University, a Division I institution. Unfortunately, his stay there was short-lived, as a knee injury and the surgery to repair it forced him to pivot once again.

At a new, smaller university, Davenport University, Tor'i Brooks was able to pursue both track and field and basketball. His knee injury healed well. So well that Tor'i Brooks started making moves on the court he didn't know he could do before. His nickname, Bionic, was born around that time.

So were his marketing skills. "One of the biggest goals of transferring to a smaller institution was to be more involved on campus," he says. "At the same time, I was using Instagram and Snapchat to document my life. I got ridiculed for it, but I was one of the first people in my area to do it, and I wasn't going to stop. I worked in sports marketing for the university, too."

The third component that cemented his triple-threat status came a bit later. Having achieved solid results in track and field, competing professionally at the national level, Tor'i Brooks moved to Los Angeles in 2016 to further pursue his basketball career. There, he worked at the local gym, trying to make ends meet. Luck smiled at him when he was called up by a company looking for a high-jumper for acting and modeling jobs. He said yes, was sent on an audition, and was soon on set for his first gig.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7prvNpaCnnV6YvK57zZ6urGdhaIJ6gpNwZp2hl57BoriMnKmemaSkv26tzZ1knqakp7KxvsSnnK6qXam8s7WMm6mop5uoeqq%2FjJpkraqZpbmmedOhqZ6ZpA%3D%3D