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The 10 Most Successful UW Huskies Basketball Players in the NBA/ABA

By Ben Renner

Oct 21, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; New Orleans Pelicans guard Nate Robinson (2) reacts as he made a three pointer to tie the game during the second half against the Orlando Magic at Amway Center. Orlando Magic defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 10-107 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 21, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; New Orleans Pelicans guard Nate Robinson (2) reacts as he made a three pointer to tie the game during the second half against the Orlando Magic at Amway Center. Orlando Magic defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 10-107 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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Somebody get FanSided a picture of Brandon Roy! Check out a picture of him in high school here. By the way, those players he’s dunking on? From Franklin High School. Hah! Boo on the Quakers. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /

1. Brandon Roy

Brandon Roy graduated from Garfield High School in Seattle the year before I became a Bulldog in 2002 and played four years with Romar and the UW Huskies before entering the NBA Draft. Up until now, I’ve weighed longevity in the NBA as a crucial factor on this list, but even though Roy’s 326 games in the NBA for the Portland Trail Blazers fell well short of others on this list, the impact that he made for the team was so profound that I had to put him at number one. Plus, he’s a nice guy and a fellow Garfield alum.

Roy developed into an excellent player for the loaded UW Huskies teams of the early-to-mid-2000s. During his junior year, Roy scored 35 points against the Arizona Sun Devils and became the 31st Washington player ever to score 1000 points for the Huskies. He led the UW Huskies to back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in 2005 and 2006. After his junior year with the UW Huskies in which he averaged 12.8 points and five rebounds a game, he considered entering the NBA Draft. Romar was able to sway him back to the team after the departures of Robinson and former Seattle Prep star Martell Webster with a renewed role with the team.

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After his final year with the UW Huskies, Roy was selected sixth overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves. He was traded immediately to the Portland Trail Blazers. And there his career took off. He won Rookie of the Year honors in the NBA with the Blazers after averaging 16.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, and four assists in 2007. He was selected as a reserve for the Western Conference All-Star team the next season. In the 2008-2009 season, he became known for hitting clutch shots. By the end of the 2009 season, he had made 24 shots in his career that tied the game or put his team ahead.

Roy will perhaps be best remembered for his gritty playoff performances. In 2010, he returned to the court eight days after knee surgery to repair a slight meniscus tear to lead the Blazers to a win in the first round of the playoffs. The next season, after missing much of the year with assorted knee troubles that would eventually doom his career prematurely, Roy scored 18 points in the fourth quarter of the Blazers’ Game 4 matchup with the Dallas Mavericks. His incredible four-point play and a clutch bank shot from the paint gave the Blazers an 84-82 win in a game in which they had trailed the Mavs 67-44 at one point. Despite Roy’s optimism at the end of that series, his knees were so worn through that he was forced to retire ahead of the 2011-2012 season. His five-game comeback for the Timberwolves wasn’t productive, and by 2013 he was out of the league. Bad knees are no good.

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