NBLC Alumni: Devin Sweetney
6’6
Forward
From Washington DC
Tenure: 2012-13, 2019
2013 NBLC MVP
1xAll-NBLC
Canada was one stop on much-travelled Devin Sweeney's globetrotting career, but his time balling in the NBLC left a major mark on the league and gave him one of the greatest honours of his playing career.
Sweetney started out with Riverdale High School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, where he was a teammate of future NBA and CBA star Michael Beasley, and was also champion of the Falconers Summer Basketball League in 2004.
He joined the Saint Francis Red Flash in 2006, averaging 12.9 points and 7.6 rebounds in his first year, starting in every game as he went on to do as a sophomore. Averaging a career-best 16.9 points in his senior year, he was named to the Northeast Conference first team. He finished his Red Flash career with an average 6.9 rebounds per game and 1,529 total points scored - the seventh most in the team's history.
On from this, Sweetney was chosen by the Tulsa 66ers in the fourth round of the 2010 NBA D-League Draft, but instead spent his first two professional seasons playing in Iceland, Latvia and Japan. In 2012 he joined the Moncton Miracles. Starting in 47 out of 47 games, he led the league in scoring with an average 25.0 points per game. His season highlight came on March 3rd 2013, when he scored a record 56 points against the Quebec Kebs, a contributor to his winning the Most Valuable Player award.
The next season he posted 19.9 points in 33 starts for the Lugano Tigers in Switzerland, with whom he won the LNBA league title. Staying in Switzerland he played for Monthy and Neuchatel, before moving on to the Dominican Republic, joining up with the Huracanes del Atlántico.
In 2015, Sweetney and his team City of Gods reached the championship game of The Basketball Tournament, losing 84-71 to the Overseas Elite. This was just the start of a busy year in basketball for him, where he also made four preseason appearances for the NBA's Denver Nuggets and later averaging 17.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists for Rojos Veracruz in Mexico.
He then spent much of 2016 playing in Belgium, first for Charleroi, then Liege. In 33 games for Liege he averaged 13.4 points, before making the move the following season to Marinos in Venezuela and Maurienne in France, for whom he played in 12 games and averaged 12.4 points.
In November 2018 he made his NBA G League debut for the Capital City Go-Go, appearing in 17 games, before making his long-awaited return to the NBL Canada, signing with the Cape Breton Highlanders. He played in just eleven games but averaged 20.4 points and 6.9 rebounds.
His Canadian comeback falling short of expectation, he played in the 2019 Americas Champions League for Uruguayan team Bigua, but when the team did not qualify for the knockout round he signed with Greek club Panionios, averaging 8.3 points in seven games played. It was at this point he decided to end one chapter of his sporting career and open another, accepting his first coaching job as player development coordinator of the NBA G League's Windy City Bulls.
Few basketball players can claim to have the same breadth of experience Sweeney has had and the NBL Canada fanbase is glad to have had him grace the league and leave a lasting impact.
