Remember Earl Watson?
The legend of Earl.
His teammates loved playing with him.
Earl Watson was one of those guys who, despite never being the best player on the team, had the respect from his squad. He played hard, listened, and wasn’t selfish.
He was a second-round pick (40th overall) in the 2001 NBA Draft, but he played 13 years in the league, which is rare.
And it wasn’t because he was some diamond in the rough guy. He wasn’t highly skilled or talented, or a super athlete, like Isaiah Thomas and Gilbert Arenas.
He was just a hard worker who put his team’s success ahead of his own. He played tough, gritty defence and made smart plays on the other end of the floor.
This type of play didn’t garner him any awards, but it did guarantee him a contract every season. And with every agreement, he made sure he deserved it (and more).
In his rookie season, Watson recorded season-highs of 5 steals twice. He didn’t receive a lot of playing time (only averaged 15 minutes per game and played in 64 games) but he performed with maximum effort every minute he was on the hardwood.
As a result, he gained more and more trust from his coaches and teammates.
His minutes increased each year and he was suiting up for more and more games; he even became the second option at the point guard position for multiple teams (the Memphis Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets and Sonics).
Then in 2007-08, 8 years into his career, Watson got his big break. The Seattle Supersonics named him their starting point guard.
He didn’t put up All-Star numbers or anything out of the ordinary in this campaign. As a matter of fact, his numbers were pretty similar to the last two seasons.
But with the extra touches, Watson managed to have a handful of extraordinary performances.
The main one was a triple-double on February 6, 2008. The Sonics played the Sacramento Kings and Watson recorded 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in the 105-92 win.
It was his first-ever career triple-double and Seattle’s first in four years.
“It’s something you always want to get, a triple-double,” Watson said, “but it was even more important that we got another win… I’ve been close a couple of times, but I was not sure I was going to get it. My teammates told me in the fourth that I was getting close.”
The eighth-year point guard only had one of these performances, but he did have a handful of near triple-doubles.
For instance, on April 6, 2008, he was 4 rebounds short of a triple-double. And then on April 13, 2008, he was 2 rebounds shy.
Watson played 78 games (and started 73) this year and averaged 10.7 points, 6.8 assists and 2.9 rebounds.
This was by far Watson’s best season, but it was ruined because Seattle was in the early stages of a rebuild and was horrible. They only won 20 out of the 82 games.
The point guard had a few more good years in him and played until 2014.
He departed Seattle/Oklahoma at the end of the 2008-09 season after playing 5 years there. He went on to play in Indiana and Utah before playing in Portland in his final NBA season (2013-14).
Watson averaged 6.4 points, 4.4 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.0 steals.
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