Signed
COMPLETED
Earl Watson
One collector is trying to find a single signature from every man who ever played for the Jazz — all 370 of them, from the 1974 New Orleans team to today. For many of them, this page is the only one on the internet. Here is Earl Watson: what he did on the floor, a few things most people never knew, and every card that carries his name. If you have a better example of his signature, or a story about it, the note at the foot of this page still stands.
A record-setting four-year starter at UCLA, Earl Watson carved out thirteen NBA seasons as a second-round pick who beat the odds, joining Utah from Indiana in 2010 after earlier years in Seattle, where he once posted a 23-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double. He retired in 2014 and moved straight into coaching, becoming head coach of the Phoenix Suns — the first NBA head coach of Hispanic descent.
The son of an African-American father and a Mexican-American mother from Kansas City, Kansas, Watson was eligible to play for Mexico through his grandparents. The death of his brother Dwayne, a retired police officer, became a driving force behind his turn to coaching.
HOW HE CAME & WENTHe signed with Utah in September 2010, saying he chose the Jazz to win again, and spent three seasons as the veteran backup point guard. In 2013 the club let its veterans go and turned to Trey Burke. He joined Portland.
- Full name
- Earl Joseph Watson Jr.
- Utah Jazz tenure
- 2010–13
- Position
- Guard
- Born
- 1979, Kansas City, Kansas
- Height
- 6′2″ (188 cm)
- Weight
- 194 lb (88 kg)
- College
- UCLA
- Drafted
- 2001, 2nd round (No. 40), Seattle
With the Jazz
EARL WATSON · 2010–13 · PER GAME| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010–11 | UTA | 80 | 19.6 | 4.3 | 2.3 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 0.2 | .410 | .336 | .671 |
| 2011–12 | UTA | 50 | 20.7 | 3.0 | 2.4 | 4.3 | 1.1 | 0.4 | .338 | .192 | .674 |
| 2012–13 | UTA | 48 | 17.3 | 2.0 | 1.8 | 4.0 | 0.8 | 0.2 | .308 | .179 | .680 |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 3 SEASONS | 178 | 19.3 | 3.3 | 2.2 | 3.8 | 0.9 | 0.3 | .370 | .273 | .673 |
Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
Did you know
EARL WATSON · 9 NOTES- Was part of UCLA teams that reached multiple NCAA tournaments in the late 1990s.
- Started more consecutive games than anyone in UCLA basketball history.
- His father was among the first Black men to enlist in the newly integrated Army after President Truman's 1948 order.
- His only career triple-double came in February 2008, 23 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists against Sacramento.
- As a UCLA freshman he started alongside Baron Davis, the first pair of freshmen to start for the Bruins since 1979.
- In 2013 he opened the Earl Watson Early Childhood Center, a preschool in his hometown of Kansas City, Kansas.
- He built his AAU program Earl Watson Elite into roughly 70 travel teams up and down the West Coast.
- 'I was spoiled early. So now, going into my 10th year, it's a chance to get back to my foundation, my roots,' Watson said on signing, after five straight losing seasons.
- Knee trouble and an undiagnosed sports hernia cut into his minutes in 2012-13, his last season with the Jazz.
All photographs
1 PHOTO