Former Ohio basketball player DeVaughn Washington has signed a contract with the Kumamoto Vorters in Japan’s National Basketball League, which is the country’s top league.
Washington will be entering his third year as a professional basketball player after making stops in Turkey, Uruguay and Austria. Last season, for WBC Raiffeisen Wels in Austria, he averaged 14.5 points, as the team advanced to the Austrian Cup Semifinals. He also led the team in rebounding, blocked shots and finished second in field goal percentage.
In February, Washington also racked up the Eurobasket.com Player of the Week honors, after posting a double-double with 25 points and 13 rebounds in a game against BC Vienna.
While at Ohio, Washington received All-MAC honorable mention honors during his senior season. He led the Bobcats to three postseason appearances, including an upset win against Georgetown and finished his Ohio career with 1,061 points.
He will be coached by Norm DeSilva, who previously had experience with Attack Athletics in Chicago, where he worked with Dwayne Wade. DeSilva also worked as an assistant coach with the Iowa Energy in the NBA D-League.
“(DeSilva) is only four years older than me but he has a lot of experience working at Attack Athletics in Chicago and then player development,” Washington said. “With the style of play he’s looking for I feel really good; he wants to keep it up pace and kind of reminded me of coach (John) Groce a little bit with the style of play he wants to play.”
Washington said he will be playing power forward and center at Kumamoto and has been working on perfecting his midrange shooting in the offseason after he primarily played center last year.
“I’ve been really working on my midrange game — I was pretty much working on that all summer,” Washington said. “I think that’s where I lacked in Austria. I had a different role, so I kind of lost that midrange touch. This summer I’ve been working to get that back and make sure it was on point.”
Washington said it has been a hard transition from a basketball standpoint because several rules are different, but he didn’t hesitate to say that it has made him a smarter player.
“It definitely makes you take a step back and think about what you’re going to do, what’s your next move,” Washington said. “You start to realize how much you’ve got to work on your game, be able to do different things, find different ways to score and just being able to put your self in the best situation.”
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