Earl Joseph Watson Jr. (born June 12, 1979) is 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 court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games a ...

of the

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

(NBA). He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

, where he was a four-year starter and named all-conference as a senior in the Pac-10 (now known as the Pac-12). Watson was drafted by the

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Confe ...

in the second round of the

2001 NBA draft The 2001 NBA draft took place on June 27, 2001 in New York City, New York. Kwame Brown became the first high school player to be drafted with the first overall pick in the history of the NBA. The selection of Kwame Brown by the Washington Wizards, ...

with the 39th overall selection. He played 13 seasons in the NBA with seven teams before becoming a coach in 2014. He was the head coach of the Phoenix Suns from 2016 to 2017.

High school and college career

Watson is a graduate of Washington High School in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

. In his senior year of high school he averaged 23.4 points, 8.3 assists and 14 rebounds per game. Watson was a starter in college at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, at one point playing alongside future NBA All-Star

Baron Davis Baron Walter Louis Davis (born April 13, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player who is a studio analyst for the '' NBA on TNT''. He was a two-time NBA All-Star, made the All-NBA Third Team in 2004, and twice led the NBA in ...

. They were the first two freshmen to start at UCLA since the 1979 season. A four-year starter, Watson started the most consecutive games in the history of UCLA basketball.Player Bio: Earl Watson
/ref> As a senior in 2000–01, he averaged 14.7 points (2nd on the team, 9th in the pac-10), 5.2 assists, (1st on the team, 2nd most in the Pac-10) 3.7 rebounds, 0.3 blocks, and 1.9 steals (most in the Pac-10, most on the team) per game. He earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors.

Professional career

Watson was selected in the second round (39th overall) by the SuperSonics in the

. In the 2007–08 NBA season, Watson averaged 10.7 points and 6.8 assists with the Sonics. On February 6, 2008, Watson recorded his first-ever

triple-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

in a game against the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

. Watson logged 23 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in 32 minutes. It was Seattle's first triple-double since

Ray Allen Walter Ray Allen Jr. (born July 20, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. He played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in ...

registered one on January 28, 2004, against the Los Angeles Lakers. On July 17, 2009, Watson was waived by the Thunder. He signed a one-year deal with the Indiana Pacers on July 28, 2009. He signed with the

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference, Northwest Division (NBA), ...

on September 26, 2010. On July 10, 2013, he signed with the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Con ...

. Watson's final NBA game was played in Game 4 of the 2014 Western Conference Semi-Finals between the Trailblazers and the San Antonio Spurs on May 12, 2014. In his final game, Watson only played for a minute and half and recorded no stats. The TrailBlazers won the game 103 - 92 but this would be their only victory of the series, as they would go on to lose the series in 5 games to San Antonio. Watson retired as a player on October 2, 2014.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

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Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

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Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

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Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

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Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

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Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

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Playoffs

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2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

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Coaching career

On October 2, 2014, Watson was hired as an assistant coach by the

Austin Spurs The Austin Spurs are an American basketball team in the NBA G League based in Cedar Park, Texas, and are affiliated with the San Antonio Spurs. The team plays their home games at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. The team has made the postseason in 8 ...

of the

NBA D-League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA Dev ...

, effectively ending his 13-year playing career. He joined the Phoenix Suns as their new assistant coach on July 30, 2015. However, after a poor start to the 2015–16 season, the Suns fired coach

Jeff Hornacek Jeffrey John Hornacek (; born May 3, 1963) is an American professional basketball coach and a former player who is a coaching consultant for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He previously was the head coach for both the ...

and replaced him with Watson as the interim head coach for the rest of the season. While Watson would make his coaching debut on February 2, 2016 at home against the

, it wouldn't be until February 27, almost a month later, where he'd record his first win with the Suns at home against the

Memphis Grizzlies The Memphis Grizzlies (referred to locally as the Grizz) are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference ...

, a team he had previously played under. He would then get his first two-game winning streak on the road as a coach with victories on March 4 against the Orlando Magic and March 6 against the Grizzlies, respectively. After starting out the season with only one victory in ten games for February, he'd end the season with an 8–15 record the rest of the way, including ending the season with a 3–1 stint. On April 19, the Suns announced that they had agreed to a three-year deal with Watson due to the positive nature he had that was instilled upon the team after he was first hired, making him the full-time head coach of the team. At the time of his promotion to permanent head coach, Watson was the second-youngest head coach in the NBA (behind only

Luke Walton Luke Theodore Walton (born March 28, 1980) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 10 seasons in the NBA as a f ...

), being 36 when he first started coaching. Watson also became the first former

player to become a head coach in the NBA, as well as the first NBA head coach of

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

descent. During Watson's first full season as head coach, he continued to promote the same philosophical mindset he had for the Suns back when he first started coaching them, but he'd also adjust the team's focus to being more involved with defense first and then offense second. Before the start of the 2017–18 season, Suns owner

Robert Sarver Robert Gary Sarver (born October 31, 1961) is an American businessman, co-founder of Southwest Value Partners, a real estate development company, and the former owner of the Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Mercury, and RCD Mallorca. Early life and edu ...

had told sports agent

Rich Paul Rich Paul (born December 16, 1981) is an American sports agent based in Cleveland, Ohio. He founded Klutch Sports Group which represents a number of prominent NBA players. Paul was named by ''Forbes'' as one of the world's most powerful sports ...

of Klutch Sports, who represented Watson at the time, that he planned to fire Watson if the coach did not server ties with Klutch. After the Suns got off to a 0–3 start, with two blowout losses (including the worst loss in franchise history and worst season opening performance in NBA history), Watson was fired on October 22, and replaced on an interim basis by associate head coach

Jay Triano A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian m ...

for the rest of the season. Watson later worked with the Junior Basketball Association in 2018 and then worked as a Pac-12 Network and

NBA TV NBA TV is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit. Dedicated to basketball, the network features exhibition, regula ...

studio analyst from 2019 to 2021 before joining the

as an assistant coach in the 2021–22 season.

Head coaching record

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Personal life

Watson's father, Earl, is

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

and his mother, Estella, is Mexican-American. Because his maternal grandparents were born in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, Watson was eligible to play for the

Mexico national basketball team The Mexico national basketball team (Spanish: Selección de baloncesto de México) represents Mexico in men's international basketball competitions, The team has made five appearances in FIBA World Cup, The governing body of the team is the Asoci ...

.Chris Perkins. "NBA Extra". ''Palm Beach Post''. January 15, 2006. 7B. Watson has four brothers and one sister. He is also involved with the local Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Arizona. One of his brothers, Dwayne, was a retired police officer who died due to blood clots in his legs that were dislodged during an altercation. The assailant, Tremaine Quinn, was sentenced to 36 months of probation for the action. That incident would be a major driving force for Earl to take up coaching in basketball. Watson founded the organization "Emagine" to positively impact the youth of his hometown Kansas City, Kansas. On May 16, 2009 he married actress

Jennifer Freeman Jennifer Nicole Freeman, often credited as Jennifer N. Freeman, is an American actress and spokesmodel. She is best known for playing the role of Claire Kyle in the sitcom ''My Wife and Kids'' (introduced in season 2) and her film roles in ''You ...

. They have a daughter together Isabella Amora Watson. They separated in 2011. Watson has stated he takes coaching inspiration from

all-time great John Wooden. Watson is considered a supporter of the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

programs, saying that the right program and right people involved can lead towards more positive experiences for the people involved. He also stated that he likely would have never gotten a scholarship for UCLA if he didn't have the AAU around. He is part-owner of AAU program Earl Watson Elite. He also joined

LaVar Ball LaVar Christopher Ball (born October 23, 1967) is an American businessman. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of the sports apparel company Big Baller Brand and founder of the now defunct Junior Basketball Association (JBA ...

's Junior Basketball Association committee. Watson started Earl Watson Early Childhood Center, a preschool in his hometown of Kansas City. Establishing 70 Earl Watson Elite travel teams on the west coast has helped Earl develop a strong connection in grassroots basketball. Becoming the first head coach in the NBA of Latino descent has allowed Earl to lead the way for diversity in leadership in sports along with receiving a multitude of other awards, including: * 2019 UCLA Latino Alumnus of the Year * NAHREP - National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professions * 2017 Vanguard Award * NCLR - National Council of La Raza - Roberto Clemente Lifetime Achievement Award * Establishing the Earl Watson Early Childhood Center in 2013 * 2006 Reasons to Believe Award

References

External links

Earl Watson's Student-Athlete Program
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Earl 1979 births Living people African-American basketball players American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players American sportspeople of Mexican descent Basketball coaches from Kansas Basketball players from Kansas Denver Nuggets players Indiana Pacers players Memphis Grizzlies players Oklahoma City Thunder players Phoenix Suns assistant coaches Phoenix Suns head coaches Point guards Portland Trail Blazers players Seattle SuperSonics draft picks Seattle SuperSonics players Sportspeople from Kansas City, Kansas UCLA Bruins men's basketball players Utah Jazz players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople