Adoption changed Chris Early’s name and his life.

Born Chris Smith to a heroin-using mother and an absent father, Early had tumultuous stays at three foster homes in Huntington, W.Va. He finally landed with his aunt, who adopted him and altered the course for a boy seemingly destined for demise.

But the woman who has loved him like a son, his aunt Lana Early, is in the intensive care unit of a hospital in their hometown.

“He’s seen things and been through things that would make a normal man give up on life,” said Greg Thompson, Early’s best friend and adviser. “Chris has had a tough go of things.”

Today, Early will fulfill a lifelong dream of playing college basketball. It’s the culmination of a journey that started 10 years ago and took Early through poverty and to Oklahoma with a brief stop in Cincinnati before he landed in Chattanooga.

The journey left emotional scars every step of the way.

“Right from wrong — I barely had anybody teach me that,” Early said. “I had to learn for myself what was the right thing to do and what was a bad thing. Most of my friends that I grew up with are either dead or selling drugs.

“I’m lucky I didn’t get sucked into that lifestyle.”

Early will begin a new phase of his life tonight with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball Mocs in their game at No. 23 Davidson.

“It feels like forever,” Early said Thursday after practice in Maclellan Gym. “I haven’t heard any cheering or booing since the (2007) state championship game.”

He hasn’t garnered any cheers in almost two years, since Huntington High School won the West Virginia AAA state title and was ranked No. 8 in the nation. That team included O.J. Mayo, who now plays for the Memphis Grizzlies; Patrick Patterson, who plays for Kentucky; and Early, whom Rivals.com ranked as the No. 27 shooting guard and one of the nation’s top 150 overall college prospects.

“It was crazy,” Early said. “Three of us were big-time recruits; three other people could have gone D-I. We couldn’t play in our home gym. We sold out Marshall’s gym.”

Cheers were supposed to follow Early to the Lloyd Noble Center when he signed with Oklahoma. His venture to the Sooner State lasted about a month before he was dismissed from the team. Police cited Early for trespassing at a night club days before the dismissal.

“He was frustrated with a whole bunch of things — being away from home, not being as strong as other players — and he wasn’t ready for college,” Thompson said. “There wasn’t one variable. He just wasn’t ready.

“If he went there today, he’d still be there.”

Early landed at Harmony Community School in Cincinnati but never settled in. He didn’t find a comfortable place until he found the playroom at UTC coach John Shulman’s home on Lookout Mountain.

On that December evening a year ago, the coach didn’t quite know what to make of a former top prospect who had fallen from grace.

Some told Shulman he was a good kid. Others said he wasn’t — or at least wasn’t worth the effort.

So Shulman stuck one of his best judges of character on Early — his 2-year-old son John Carter.

“We saw him at a prep-school tournament, but you hear these stories about a good kid or a bad kid, so I decided to be the judge,” said Shulman, who first scouted Early before his junior season. “We brought him up to the house. J.C. took him into our playroom and started pelting him with all sorts of balls. They had a blast.”

Said Early: “I came up the stairs and Coach started laughing at me.”

Shulman offered Early a scholarship and a second chance to play Division I basketball. Early enrolled at UTC for the spring semester, and Shulman said it looks like J.C. made a good decision in finding a new friend.

Early was a top player and a classy representative for Ron Bishop’s SCORE International team that went to Costa Rica this past summer, along with UTC teammate Ricky Taylor.

“He’s done well academically and on the court,” Shulman said of Early. “He’s on time, he listens, he understands and he’s been very coachable.

“He’s a very sensitive kid, but you wouldn’t know it.”

Getting Early to laugh, smile or express emotion is a tough task. He walks around campus with an iPod blaring in his ears and an intense look on his face. At 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds, he offers an intimidating presence.

“He’s camera-shy and a quiet person all around,” said roommate Keegan Bell — a Vanderbilt transfer — who also stayed home when the Mocs went on a 10-day road trip in November. “He’s a very caring guy, and you have to break through that barrier. When you do, he becomes as goofy and silly as any number of us.

“He doesn’t say much, he doesn’t talk much, because that’s out of his comfort zone.”

Early developed a thick shell during his difficult times in Huntington. He remembers a here-and-there mom and spending some days with his aunt from the ages of 4 to 6. He spent many evenings alone, fending for himself and feeding himself.

After he spent two years in foster care, Lana Early adopted the 8-year-old.

“I was getting in trouble a lot in school, and the YMCA league started and my aunt made me quit,” Early said. “Toward the end of the season, she said I could go back depending on how I did in school. She let me go back and play.”

Early kept playing and improving and developed into a Huntington star. A YouTube video features highlights of his high school games and a few takes of him dunking over a chair he set on fire.

“Potentially, he’s got a chance to be a pro,” Shulman said. “He’s gotten by on God-given talent. He doesn’t play hard enough for me or defend good enough for me. Then he’ll go do something special on offense.”

Early, who has three and a half years of eligibility remaining, turned 20 in November. They’ve been a hard 20 years.

“It was a tough road not having either parent,” Early said. “Luckily, I had an aunt who cared.

“It could have been worse.”

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