NBLC Alumni: Garrett Williamson
6’5
Guard
From Ardmore, Pennsylvania
🍁 Tenure: 2013-2014, 2015-2020
2xNBLC Champion
2018 Finals MVP
2014 Canadian of the Year
3xAll-NBLC Team
Bringing natural ability, versatile offence and unrelenting athleticism to the NBL Canada boards, Garrett Williamson spent his entire league tenure on the same team, for whom he was one of their biggest assets and one of the biggest burdens for opponents.
Graduating from Lower Merion High School (Also the former school of Kobe Bryant), Williamson joined the NCAA Division 1 team Saint Joseph’s Hawks. He showed steady signs of improvement throughout his four years, averaging 12.1 points per game in his senior year and ended his tenure with two conference defensive team honours.
Williamson began his professional career with the Austin Toros, who selected him in the 2010 NBA D-League Draft. He split the 2010-11 season between the Toros and the Tulsa 66ers, with whom he reached the championship semi-finals. He next played for Ehingen Uprising in Germany before first joining the London Lightning in 2013.
With his first Canadian team, Williamson began the season with four twenty-point performances and went on to score 36 points on two occasions on the season. A three-time Player of the Week and averaging 18.0 points per game at the end of the regular season, he was named Canadian Player of the Year and to the NBLC First Team.
He finished in double-digits in every game in the first round of the playoffs, which London won 3-2 over the Orangeville A's, before being knocked out by eventual champions the Windsor Express.
He returned to the Lightning in 2015 after a brief spell in Greece with AEK Athens and picked up where he left off with five twenty-point performances and his first NBLC double-double, 21 and 11 boards, against Windsor on May 17th 2016. With the team he swept Orangeville in the first round of the playoffs and made the finals with a 4-2 series defeat of the Express, but came up short against the Halifax Hurricanes following that.
Wililamson and London's wait would be over the following season, where they defeating the Halifax Hurricanes 4-2 in the finals to win his first and the Lightning's third NBLC title. Before the 2017-18 season, he played for the Canadian team at the William Jones Cup in Taipei. Twice leading the team in scoring, he helped the team to the first Canadian victory at the tournament since 1996.
Back in the NBLC, Williamson began his fourth straight season in London with 28 points against the Niagara River Lions, going on to reach double digits in all but one regular season game. He progressed to make four double-doubles in the post season and reaching twenty points in five of seven finals games against Halifax, he scooped up Finals MVP honours as the Lightning picked up their record fourth title.
Re-signing with the Lightning for the 2018-19 season, Williamson quickly had another honour to his name: NBLC Player of the Week following 29 points against Windsor on November 25th, his first of two on the season. Finishing the season on 15.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, he dialled it up the following year. This included his first 30 point game since 2014, which he repeated against the Island Storm on January 16th against the Island Storm, while also grabbing 11 rebounds.
A promising start that was sadly brought to an end by the season's curtailing. It would be the last time Williamson played in the NBL Canada, ending his tenure as one of the most decorated players in the league's history and most memorable scorers. His efforts were acknowledged in 2022, where he was named to the NBLC Tenth Anniversary Team.
