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Former Husky Stevenson Still Chasing NBA Job

The brash one turns up in the Summer League with the Denver Nuggets.
Former UW guard Erik Stevenson (10) celebrates a basket for West Virginia in 2022.
Former UW guard Erik Stevenson (10) celebrates a basket for West Virginia in 2022. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The other day, an Erik Stevenson sighting came into view.

In a seven-second video clip posted on social media by the NBA Summer League, the former University of Washington guard and man of many, many teams made a hard move forward on the dribble to set up a step-back 3-pointer for the Denver Nuggets that drew an audible crowd response when it swished through.

Stevenson, 27, is still at it, wearing his trademark crewcut, never lacking for brashness and firing up shots as often as he can.

While he's starting for the Nuggets' summer team, he's played in Spain, Turkey and France in recent years and spent two seasons in the NBA G League, with all of this coming after playing for four different college teams.

A Lacey, Washington, native, Stevenson came home from Wichita State during the COVID pandemic to share in a most unforgettable Husky basketball experience.

Playing in empty gyms and with everyone wearing protective masks courtside, the 6-foot-3 guard was part of a 5-21 Husky team -- the second worst record in school history -- that had zero cohesiveness, a serious lack of talent and a coach who would last just three more seasons before he was fired.

Playing poorly himself, Stevenson couldn't get out of town fast enough after averaging 9.3 points per game and shooting 29.8 percent from 3-point range.

No one threw him a going-away party either.

His college career ended after stops at South Carolina and West Virginia, with the shoot-first Stevenson launching 1,541 attempts and making 584 of them. He went undrafted in 2023.

Since then, Stevenson has been a wandering basketball vagabond, with his stops including a 2024 summertime involvement with the Washington Wizards.

He has yet to play in a regulation NBA game.

The good news for him is the Nuggets have started him in each of their three games this month so he's getting a full audition.

Stevenson scored 6 points on 3-for-8 shooting, 0 for 4 from 3-point range, in his summer debut, a 97-86 loss to the Houston Rockets.

Last Saturday, he had a breakout game with a team-best 18 points on 7-for-13 shooting, which included going 4 of 7 from behind the line, in a 101-82 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

On Tuesday, he came up with a well-rounded outing of 12 points on 4-for-11 shooting, including 3 of 7 from 3-point range, while chipping in 7 rebounds and 4 assists in a 106-103 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Stevenson won't go away. Maybe this NBA thing will work out for him yet.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.