Maurice "Mo" Watson Jr. (born March 8, 1993) is an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for

CSO Voluntari Clubul Sportiv Orășenesc Voluntari 2005, commonly known as CSO Voluntari or simply Voluntari, is a Romanian multi-sport club based in Voluntari who was founded at the initiative of the office of the Mayor of Voluntari. The club currently has 13 ...

of the Liga Națională. Standing at , Watson Jr. plays as

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

. He played college basketball for both

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

and Creighton.

High school career

Watson played for Boys' Latin of Philadelphia Charter School from 2008-2012, where he was a four-year starter. He led the team to the

Philadelphia Public League The Philadelphia Public League (PPL) is the interscholastic sports league for the public high schools of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The league traces its origin to 1901, with the formation of the Philadelphia Interscholastic League, a conference en ...

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 Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a Center (basketball), center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 yea ...

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 ''Parade'' was an American nationwide Sunday magazine, Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 700 newspapers in the United States until 2022. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., ''Parade'' had a circulation of 32 million and a ...

College career

Watson Jr. played for

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 Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

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 An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during inju ...

which kept him out for the remainder of the season after playing just 19 games.

College statistics

, - , style="text-align:left;",

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 30 , , 29.5 , , .463 , , .329 , , .750 , , 3.3 , , 5.4 , , 1.7 , , 0 , , 11.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , style="text-align:left;",

, 35 , , 33 , , 31.2 , , .495 , , .337 , , .628 , , 3.6 , , 7.1 , , 2.1 , , 0 , , 13.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;", Creighton , 35 , , 34 , , 31.4 , , .475 , , .297 , , .714 , , 3.4 , , 6.5 , , 1 , , 0 , , 14.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;", Creighton , 19 , , 19 , , 29.9 , , .508 , , .469 , , .692 , , 2.6 , , 8.5 , , 1.5 , , 0 , , 12.9 , - class="sortbottom" , colspan=2 style="text-align:center;", Career , 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 ZZ Leiden Basketball, also known as Zorg en Zekerheid Leiden, is a basketball club based in Leiden, Netherlands. The club plays in the BNXT League, the domestic first tier league. Their home games are played at Vijf Meihal, which has 2,000 seats. ...

of the

Dutch Basketball League The Dutch Basketball League (DBL), formerly the Eredivisie, was the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands, run by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). Since 2021, the league has been replaced by the Belgian-Dutch BNXT Le ...

(DBL). On November 10, Watson scored a DBL season-high 22 points in a 82–87 loss to Landstede. On March 31, Watson won the

NBB Cup The Basketball Cup, formerly the NBB Cup ( nl, NBB-Beker), is an annual cup competition for Dutch basketball teams organised by the Basketball Nederland. Every team in the Netherlands can participate by signing up for the preliminary rounds. Profes ...

with Leiden. 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 The Dutch Basketball League (DBL) All-Star Team, also known as All-DBL Team, is a team constituted by the main players in a season of the Dutch Basketball League, the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands. This team is based on ...

. On July 20, 2019, Watson signed with Forlì 2.015 of the Italian

Serie A2 Basket Serie A2, known for sponsorship reasons as Serie A2 Old Wild West, is a men's basketball league in Italy. It constitutes the second-tier of the Italian league pyramid, below the first division LBA and above the third division Serie B, with pro ...

. 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 Twarde Pierniki Toruń is a Polish professional basketball team based in Toruń. The team currently plays in the Polish Basketball League (PLK). The club has won Polish Basketball Cup, Polish Cup and Polish Basketball Supercup, Polish Supercup titl ...

of the

Polish Basketball League Polska Liga Koszykówki (PLK) (English language, English: Polish Basketball League) is a professional men's club basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Poland. It constitutes the first and highest-tier level of the Polish basketball leag ...

. 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 Ligat HaAl ( he, ליגת העל, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is the top-tier level league of professional sports, professional competition in Israeli sports club, club basketball, making ...

. On April 5, 2022, he was released from the team, due to "behavior that does not suit the club's values". On July 8, 2022, he has signed with Telent Antwerp Giants of the

BNXT League The BNXT League, for sponsorship reasons the betFirst BNXT League, is a professional basketball league in Belgium and the Netherlands. The league is the first tier in both the Dutch and Belgian system, replacing the Dutch Basketball League, DBL a ...

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.

References

External links

Cregighton Bluejays bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Maurice 1993 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Italy American expatriate basketball people in the Netherlands American expatriate basketball people in Poland American expatriate basketball people in Turkey American men's basketball players Antwerp Giants players Basketball players from Philadelphia Boston University Terriers men's basketball players B.S. Leiden players Dutch Basketball League players Creighton Bluejays men's basketball players Maccabi Rishon LeZion basketball players Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Point guards Twarde Pierniki Toruń players