Donald 'Slick' Watts Dies at 73; Sonics Legend Led NBA in Assists, Steals in 1976

Former Seattle SuperSonics, New Orleans Jazz and Houston Rockets point guard Donald Watts died on Saturday. He was 73.

His son, Donald Watts, and grandson Isaiah Watts—who currently plays for Washington State—both honored his memory on social media:

Other figures around the sport, including the WNBA's Seattle Storm, also paid their respects:

Watts, known as "Slick," was signed by Seattle head coach Bill Russell as an undrafted free agent in 1973 and spent parts of five seasons with the organization. His best season came in the 1975-76 campaign, when tied a career best in scoring (13 PPG), set career highs in rebounding (4.5 RPG) and shooting percentage (42.7 percent) and led the NBA in both assists (8.1 APG) and steals (3.2 SPG), also both career bests.

For his career, he averaged 8.9 points, 6.1 assists and 2.2 steals per game.

He remained in the Seattle area following his NBA career. Per The Athletic's Jeff Maillet, "Watts became a physical education teacher in Seattle at several schools and coached basketball. He also ran a basketball academy with Donald and retired from teaching in 2017.