In the archive

Looking forbetter example
Guard · 2025–26

Walter Clayton

Final Four Most Outstanding Player in 2025, he led Florida to the national championship as a consensus first-team All-American — a two-sport talent from Lake Wales who had football offers from Florida and Notre Dame before choosing basketball at little Iona under Rick Pitino. Washington took him 18th in the 2025 draft and dealt him to Utah on draft night.

He signed alongside Ace Bailey in July 2025 and made 45 appearances in his rookie season for the Jazz before the February 2026 trade that sent him to Memphis — a short stay, but the archive remembers everyone.

HOW HE CAME & WENTWashington took him 18th overall in 2025 and Utah traded up to get him, hours after taking Ace Bailey fifth. He went to Memphis in the February 2026 Jaren Jackson Jr. blockbuster.

Full name
Walter Marterry Clayton Jr.
Utah Jazz tenure
2025–26
Position
Guard
Born
2003, Bartow, Florida
Height
6′4″ (193 cm)
Weight
194 lb (88 kg)
College
Florida
Drafted
2025, 1st round
Signature in the archive 2025-26 Panini Donruss #PP-WCJ Pen Pals On JR. [RC]

No photograph of this signature is online yet.

With the Jazz

WALTER CLAYTON · 2025–26 · PER GAME
SEASONTEAMGMPGPPGRPGAPGSPGBPGFG%3P%FT%
2025–26UTA4518.06.82.03.20.50.3.398.308.935
JAZZ TOTAL1 SEASON4518.06.82.03.20.50.3.398.308.935

Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗  ·  Wikipedia ↗

Did you know

WALTER CLAYTON · 6 NOTES
  • Was the first Florida basketball player ever named SEC Male Athlete of the Year.
  • Essentially a zero-star basketball recruit, he picked Iona knowing little about the school beyond recognizing its coach from NCAA Tournament telecasts.
  • He and his father used to go head to head on a neighborhood court in Lake Wales while people sat and watched.
  • He scored 134 points in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the most by any player in a single tournament since Kemba Walker in 2011.
  • The title game was decided by his defense — a full-speed closeout that forced Houston into a pump fake and a lost dribble at the buzzer.
  • As a sophomore at Iona he led the entire nation in free-throw shooting at 95.3 percent.