Maurice Watson

Maurice "Mo" Watson Jr. (born March 8, 1993) is an American basketball player who last played for Gaziantep Basketbol of the Turkish Basketball First League (TBL). Standing at 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m), Watson Jr. plays as point guard. He played college basketball for both Boston University and Creighton.

Maurice Watson

Free Agent
Position	Point guard
Personal information
Born	(1993-03-08) March 8, 1993 (age 32) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nationality	American
Listed height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Listed weight	175 lb (79 kg)
Career information
High school	Boys' Latin (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
College	Boston University (2012–2014) Creighton (2015–2017)
NBA draft	2017: undrafted
Playing career	2018–present
Career history
2018–2019	ZZ Leiden
2019–2020	Forlì 2.015
2020–2021	Budo Gemlik
2021	Twarde Pierniki Toruń
2021–2022	Maccabi Rishon LeZion
2022	Antwerp Giants
2022–2023	CSO Voluntari
2023–2024	Gaziantep Basketbol
Career highlights
FIBA Europe Cup assists leader (2019) All-DBL Team (2019) Dutch Cup champion (2019) DBL assists leader (2019) Second-team All-Big East (2016) First-team All-Patriot League (2014) Third-team All-America East (2013) First-team Parade All-American (2012)

High school career

Watson played for Boys' Latin of Philadelphia Charter School from 2008 to 2012, where he was a four-year starter. He led the team to the Philadelphia Public League title game in his senior year, and to a semi-final loss in the Pennsylvania 4A Boys Basketball Tournament. He remains the all-time scoring leader at Boys’ Latin, as he passed Wilt Chamberlain to post a career total of 2,356 points, second in Philadelphia Public League history. In addition to many local honors, he was a Parade All-American.

College career

Watson Jr. played for Boston University in his first college season, 2012–2013. Here, he averaged 11.2 points, 5.4 assists and 1.7 steals per game in his freshman season. In 2014, he transferred to Creighton where he had a redshirt season. In his second season with Creighton, Watson Jr. averaged 14.1 points and 6.5 assists. In the 2016–2017 season, Watson Jr. suffered from a torn ACL which kept him out for the remainder of the season after playing just 19 games.^[1]

College statistics

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2012–13	Boston University	30	30	29.5	.463	.329	.750	3.3	5.4	1.7	0	11.2
2013–14	Boston University	35	33	31.2	.495	.337	.628	3.6	7.1	2.1	0	13.3
2015–16	Creighton	35	34	31.4	.475	.297	.714	3.4	6.5	1	0	14.1
2016–17	Creighton	19	19	29.9	.508	.469	.692	2.6	8.5	1.5	0	12.9
Career[1][2]		119	116	30.6	.484	.341	.698	3.3	6.7	1.6	0	12.9

Professional career

On July 27, 2018, Watson Jr. signed his first professional contract with ZZ Leiden of the Dutch Basketball League (DBL).^[3] On November 10, Watson scored a DBL season-high 22 points in an 82–87 loss to Landstede.^[4] On March 31, Watson won the NBB Cup with Leiden.^[5] He scored 17 points in the cup final. Watson finished the season as league leader in assists and was subsequently named a member of the All-DBL Team.

On July 20, 2019, Watson signed with Forlì 2.015 of the Italian Serie A2 Basket.^[6]

Watson spent the 2020–21 season in Turkey with Budo Gemlik and averaged 19.4 points, 4.7 rebounds, 8.9 assists and 2.1 steals per game.

On August 7, 2021, he signed with Twarde Pierniki Toruń of the Polish Basketball League.^[7] In 12 games, Watson averaged 17.6 points, 10.9 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game.

On November 29, 2021, he signed with Maccabi Rishon LeZion of the Israeli Basketball Premier League.^[8][9]

On July 8, 2022, he has signed with Telent Antwerp Giants of the BNXT League.^[10]

On July 23, 2023, he signed with Gaziantep Basketbol of the Turkish Basketball First League (TBL).^[11]

Personal life

In February 2017, Watson was accused of sexual assault by a 19-year-old female student. The charges against him were dropped in September after his accuser's credibility was suspect, but he pled no contest to a different assault charge.^[12]