Inside The Huskies

It's Not the Big Leagues, But Nowell Honored for G League Season

The former Husky guard averaged 24.8 points per game for the Capital City Go-Go.

Dan Raley

Ex-Husky Jaylen Nowell drives to the basket for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Ex-Husky Jaylen Nowell drives to the basket for the New Orleans Pelicans. / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

No one said pro basketball was going to be easy, but Jaylen Nowell hasn't given in and he's been rewarded for his efforts.

The former University of Washington guard was named to the All-NBA G League first team after averaging 24.8 points per game for the Capital City Go-Go to finish sixth among all scorers.

The only thing better would be a full-time gig in the NBA.

But for now, the 6-foot-4 Nowell presses on after spending nearly all of his sixth professional season in the G League.

While it's not the big leagues, Nowell has to be a little sentimental as he makes his way through the G League, which is one of the offshoots of the old Continental Basketball Association, which was in existence from 1946 to 2009.

Nowell's late father, Mike, played briefly in the CBA after leaving Clark University of Atlanta in 1993. He ended up in Seattle coaching youth basketball and was part of Cameron Dollar's coaching staff at Seattle University when died from cancer in 2015.

The younger Nowell was just entering Garfield High School when his dad passed. He went on to become Pac-12 Player of the Year in 2018, in his second and final season for the University of Washington.

A second-round draft pick, Nowell has appeared in 205 games for four teams in the NBA, including eight outings this past season for the New Orleans Pelicans. He's averaged 8.9 points per game in his career.

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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.

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