Chris attended the Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church three times each week with his extended family.

Commons started playing basketball in fourth grade, and he supposedly tried to improve his shooting skills early on by nailing a milk crate to a tree in his yard.

[3] For the first half of his final season at Central Catholic, Commons was the top high school scorer in the city of Toledo.

[1] Commons played two seasons of college basketball with the Oilers of the University of Findlay on a full-ride scholarship.

[1][4] At Findlay, he improved as a shooter and developed physically in order to succeed against stronger NCAA Division II competition.

Commons replicated the feat on January 29, 2004 to help the Oilers defeat Grand Valley State.

[8] At the 2005 NCAA Division II Tournament, Commons led Findlay with 29 points and nine rebounds vs. Ferris State on March 15.

[8] Commons was also hoping to graduate early and double major in criminal justice and forensic science.

[1] In spite of his success at Findlay, Commons was suspended indefinitely from the school's basketball program on robbery charges in August 2005.

[1] He ultimately chose to finish his collegiate career at USC Aiken, where he would represent the Pacers under head coach Vince Alexander.

[12] On October 5, 2009, Commons signed his first professional contract with Al Ittihad of the Bahraini Premier League.

[15][16] He received praise from Vince Alexander, who said, "Once again, as we always are for all our former players who sign professional contracts, we are excited for Chris and his family.

Team manager Benny Ang had been keeping track of the player long before the deal was made.

[21] In an early season loss to defending champions Philippine Patriots on October 16, 2010, he posted 17 points and 11 rebounds.

[22] On October 23, he scored a game-high 38 points against Satria Muda BritAma to lead the Barracudas to their first win of the season.

[25] On November 17, 2011, Commons was selected with the 11th overall pick by the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Steamers in the 2011 Premier Basketball League (PBL) draft.

[30] He broke the 30-point barrier for the second time on March 15, when he scored 32 points along with 12 rebounds to defeat the Lake Michigan Admirals.

[18] In his first game with the team, on October 3, 2012, he scored 19 points, grabbed six rebounds, and blocked three shots in a loss to Tampereen Pyrintö.