Interview with Donald Watts for Husky Digest with Jim Basnight:

Donald Watts and I sat down for a nice discussion about his early years and the experience learning from his father and other pro athletes around the house, as well as his memorable experiences at UW, the pros and how basketball continues to be the passion of his life with his academy www.hoopaholicsacademy.com and his continued work as a TV analyst for Fox Sports.

Jim: Do you remember when your dad (Slick Watts) was playing in the NBA?

Don: I was too young at the time, I just remember going to the arena. I was just born in '77. I remember him being gone a lot.

Jim: When did you start playing ball?

Don: I started with tennis and I swam. Basketball was actually the last sport that I started, in about 7th grade. I was awful.

Jim: Did your dad coach you at all when you were a kid?

Don: He started coaching me in the 8th grade.

Jim: When did you decide that you really wanted to do basketball for real?

Don: It was about 7th or 8th grade, my dad asked me what I wanted to do and I said Basketball. From that point on I was committed to basketball. I loved being in the gym. We used to go to the gym and he'd have me shooting left hand lay-ups, right hand lay-ups, hundreds of lay-ups. I was crying, my neck hurt, my arm hurt, he'd tell me that I wouldn't eat if I didn't finish (laughs). That never actually came true, but it wasn't until about 8th grade that I started getting any good at it.

J: You went to high school for the first two years at Interlake and the next two at Lake Washington. Did you play ball as a freshman?

D: I was on the varsity team as a freshman and that was rare at that time to do that. I see a lot of kids that play varsity as a freshman, not a lot but they are usually there because they are mature physically. I wasn't doing it because I was mature, I was real skinny and not that tall, probably about 6'2", but my skill level had really gotten a lot better over that two year period.

J: You had a good teacher.

D: For sure.

J: Who were some of the big name players in the state that you played against at that time?

D: Guys like Roberto Bergeson, Michael Dickerson and Jason Terry. Mike D. and I were at the gym at the pro club literally every day. So that was real good to have those guys and other guys, Roberto was over there a lot and we pushed each other. We really got to know each other and became pretty good friends and competitors in the gym.

J: Roberto played a bit in the NBA for Portland, is he still playing ball?

D: I think he's had a real nice career overseas.

J: What were some of the highlights of your high school career?

D: Most of the more fun times were playing in the summertime, doing the AAU and BCI stuff. I do this basketball academy now and there are a lot of parents that want their kids to have that experience. For us, the Michael Dickerson's, the Donald Watt's of the world, that was really our season. I watched Chauncey Billups last night in the NBA Finals. I played against Chauncey every single summer, since I was a freshman in high school in AAU tournaments and camps and stuff. Chauncey was a 4 time state player of the year in Colorado and he might have gained 10 lbs. since he was a freshman in high school. He was that size and his athleticism was just ridiculous. It was always fun to go through the years and see players like him, because there was something you could measure yourself up against, when you got to play against them.

J: What do you think about the way that AAU has changed?

D: Before there was not as many teams as there are now, really there was like three teams that traveled. Washington All Stars that Ed Pepple led and a couple others and our teams were a little stronger, because basically if you didn't go with Pepple you didn't go. There are so many different programs for kids. Kids don't like the way this is going so they go over there. It's gotten kind of messy now. There are a lot of teams and organizations that are taking these trips and traveling now that really as a guy in the basketball world, you have to wonder how much these people are getting out of those trips other than just going and seeing the top players. Everybody wants to go for exposure, but if you're not that caliber of player then you're going down to watch mostly. What is the true value in that?

J: Do you know anything about Jim Marsh and the program that he has?

D: He has an excellent program over there. Last year was phenomenal, but then O'maa Givens was one time ranked the 2nd best Center in the country. I think that the success that Jason Terry had at AZ, Mike D. had at AZ and that I had at UW really brought some attention out here. When we played they had the east coast bias that was really serious. Things are a lot more accessible now with the internet, the media reaching farther out than they did before. If it was west coast it was CA and everything else was Midwest, East Coast and down South.

J: It's changed though now and NW has really grown a lot to.

D: with a Martell Webster coming out and Marcus Williams, who is going to have a wonderful career at AZ, depending on how long he stays there.

J: Have you played against him at all?

D: I haven't played against him. I've seen him play and he's a terrific basketball player. I've talked to him and I'm really impressed with where his head is at. I think that he's got an advantage over some of these kids that have gotten more notoriety, McDonalds and stuff like that, because he's going to be hungrier.

J: When you went to UW, I remember the day when you and Jason Terry announced together on TV and he ended up going to AZ. Do you remember what happened?

D: I hadn't taken my SAT yet and there was a mixed up thing with our address. I hadn't taken the SAT test when I announced for UW. We had committed to go together and try to be one of the top back courts in the country and a lot of people were playing on the idea that I was not going to be able to pass my SAT test and I wasn't going to qualify for school. Jason was talked out of his commitment when they got him to visit AZ when all of this was up in the air. Whatever they did when he was there, he fell in love with it (laughs). More power to him, it worked out great for him.

J: You went to UW the year after that class with Todd, Mark Sanford, Jason Hartman, Roberto Bergeson, etc. What was it like playing with those guys?

D: It was a lot of fun. One of the things with me and basketball, even still, it's real hard to relate to some certain guys situations and certain views as far as the game because I grew up around pros. Professional athletes, not just NBA basketball players. Guys like Ricky Pierce, they taught me a lot about winning, scoring, the way you step on the court when somebody's in front of you. When I first got to UW they were a losing program and I remember our first game in the locker room the guys were getting real riled up, kind of like a football locker room. They were getting all pumped. I'd never seen that before. I think the big guys went out and got 9 rebounds total among all of them. That attitude of trying to psych yourself out and then go out there and not really performing your best was something that was new for me coming in. That was tough, adjusting to the program itself wasn't winning and a lot of that had to do with that mentality and then went through my freshman year and my SO year, I was always very optimistic about our team. I always felt like we were two or three wins away from getting into the NCAA tournament and we were settling for the NIT because we weren't able to buckle down. The years that we went to the NCAA tournament were necessarily our most talented years, but we had a different mind set and it took that time for us to grow into that.

In part two of this interview Donald talks candidly about his career at UW, his experiences pursuing professional basketball and how his love for the game has continued on with www.hoopaholicsacademy.com and Fox Sports.