Babb was born and raised in Kansas. After seventh grade his family moved to Arlington, Texas, where his father eventually got into the barbeque business, opening up Babb Brothers BBQ & Blues in nearby Dallas.[1] It was here that he attended The Oakridge School where he averaged 31.2 points while helping his school to a 26–3 record and a district championship as a senior. He also averaged 8.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists and totaled a school-record 1,125 points.[2]
College career
Chris Babb shooting a 3-pointer against the Kansas Jayhawks
In his freshman season at Penn State, Babb played sparingly for the Lions. In 32 games, he averaged 2.8 points and 1.1 rebounds in 10 minutes per game.[2][3]
In his sophomore season, he was third on the team in assists (69) and steals (22), and made the second-most 3-pointers on the team, hitting 69-of-185 (37.3 percent) from beyond the arc. In 31 games (23 starts), he averaged 9.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 29.7 minutes per game.[2][3]
In 2011, he transferred to Iowa State University. After redshirting the 2011–12 season due to NCAA transfer rules, he had a good junior season for the Cyclones, as he went on to be ranked 10th in the Big 12 in 3-pointers per game at 1.9. In 34 games (all starts), he averaged 7.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.0 steals in 33.1 minutes per game.[2][3]
In November 2012, Babb was suspended for the first two games of the 2012–13 season for violating team rules.[4] He went on to be named to the 2013 Big 12 All-Defensive Team. In 33 games (all starts), he averaged 9.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.1 steals in 32.7 minutes per game.[2][3] He made 38.2 percent of his 3-pointers, which accounted for 5.2 of his 7.2 field goal attempts per game that season.[5][6]
On February 28, 2014, Babb signed a 10-day contract with the Boston Celtics.[11] On March 11, 2014, he signed a second 10-day contract with the Celtics.[12] On March 21, 2014, he signed a multi-year, non-guaranteed deal with the Celtics.[13][14]
On April 6, 2015, Babb signed a multi-year deal with the Boston Celtics, but was immediately assigned back down to the Red Claws.[20] Six days later, he was recalled by the Celtics after the Red Claws were eliminated from the D-League playoffs. He did not appear in a game for the Celtics in his second stint with the team.
2015–16 season
On July 27, 2015, Babb was traded, along with Gerald Wallace, to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for David Lee.[21] On October 23, 2015, he was waived by the Warriors after appearing in five preseason games.[22]
On November 19, 2015, Babb signed with ratiopharm Ulm of the German Basketball Bundesliga.[23] In 32 league games for Ulm in 2015–16, he averaged 10.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. He also averaged 10.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.4 steals in 10 Eurocup games.
2016–17 season
On June 14, 2016, Babb re-signed with ratiopharm Ulm for the 2016–17 season.[24] He finished the regular season setting a new record for the German BBL: 100 successful 3-point made (out of 233 3-point attempts, representing a 42.9% 3-point rate over the entire regular season).[25]
2017–18 season
On July 5, 2017, Babb signed a two-year deal with Russian club Lokomotiv Kuban.[26] They parted ways in July 2018.
Babb is the son of Mike and Nikki Babb, and has a younger brother named Nick,[2] who played basketball for Iowa State University and professionally in Germany.[33] His cousin, John Babb, played college football at Baker University.[34]
