The St. John’s Edge have been busy over the last three weeks announcing the signings of new players for the 2019-20 National Basketball League of Canada season.
None of the first six announced additions has any NBL Canada experience, but that changed over the weekend with the revelation of the Edge’s seventh newcomer.
And it changed in a big way, what with St. John’s adding league veteran Tyrone Watson, a 29-year-old native of Hamilton, Ont.
Watson, a forward, has played five years in the NBLC, most recently with the Halifax Hurricanes.
The six-foot-five 225-pound Watson played his college ball at New Mexico State, getting to three NCAA tournaments with Aggies. However, he was also suspended by the team for a month after being charged with assaulting another student at a 2013 party.
Eventually, Watson was given a deferred sentence and 18 months probation after pleading guilty to a felony battery charge.
He turned pro with the Halifax Rainmen (as the Hurricanes were previously known) in 2014 and named the NBLC’s Canadian of the year.
But that was the same year the Rainmen were involved in a brawl with the Windsor Express before Game 7 of the NBLC final, leading to Halifax forfeiting the game (and potentially, the title) and eventually the indefinite suspension of all the Rainmen players.
But Watson was back in the league the following season with the Orangeville A’s.He also spent some time on the Middle East with a team in Bahrain, before returning to Halifax, where he played the last three seasons with the Hurricanes.
In all, he has appeared in 117 NBL Canada games, averaging nearly 13 points and seven rebounds per contest. Last season, injuries limited him to 16 games with Halifax, averaging just about 10 points and four rebounds in the process.
Watson becomes the fourth Canadian on the Edge roster, joining the returning Junior Cadougan and Murphy Burnatowski, as well as Cassidy Ryan, whose signing was announced last month.
Americans Cane Broome, Desmond Williams, Ryan Richardson and Montay Brandon, and Jesse Jones Desmond Williams, are the others on the roster for St. John’s, which plays its first game of the new season Dec. 27 in Moncton, N.B., where the opposition will be the defending champion Magic. The Edge open their home schedule Jan. 7 at Mile One Centre against the K-W Titans.
