Ronald Michael Watts (May 21, 1943 – November 2, 2022) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. A 6'6" forward from

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The R ...

, Watts played in the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

for two seasons (1965–67) as a member of the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...

. After his career with the Celtics, he was featured in a series of Clio-award-winning commercials for AT&T with his good friend Bill Russell. The commercials showed Watts and Russell cracking jokes at each other's expense, and helped to launch AT&T's long-distance telephone service. Ron Watts found fame with this commercial and its success was parlayed into the WATS line, standing for "Wide Area Telecommunications Service", which was AT&T's corporate offering for businesses. When AT&T was the largest company in the world, the revenue from the WATS line alone would have made it the 8th largest corporation in the world. However, this was before celebrities were highly compensated for endorsement deals and Watts received no profit share. Watts died on November 2, 2022, at the age of 79.

Career statistics

NBA

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Regular season

Playoffs

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College stats
1943 births 2022 deaths Basketball players from Washington, D.C. Boston Celtics draft picks Boston Celtics players Forwards (basketball) Seattle SuperSonics expansion draft picks Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's basketball players American men's basketball players 20th-century American sportsmen {{1940s-US-basketball-bio-stub