Tremont Waters, who had two strong seasons at LSU including a Southeastern Conference championship season in 2019, helped Puerto Rico advance through one of the FIBA qualifying tournaments to earn a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Puerto Rico defeated Lithuania, 79-68, to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since 2004. Waters had 18 points in the championship game. The Puerto Rico team will be slotted into group play in France with Serbia, South Sudan and the United States.
As a freshman at LSU in 2017-18, Waters started 32-of-33 games and averaged 15.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game. He finished the season with 198 assists, topping the school record freshman at LSU and it was the second most assists in a single season by an LSU player.
In his sophomore season (2018-19), averaged 15.3 points per game, 5.8 assists per game and 2.91 steals per game. He led the SEC in assists average and steals average and ranked fourth in the nation in steals average. He set a school mark of 96 steals for the season, topping the 30-plus year mark of 93 in 1987.
The Tigers in 2019 won the SEC regular season championship and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16. Waters is most known for his driving layup as the clock ticked inside three seconds to defeat Maryland in the NCAA second round contest.
A member of the Freshman All-SEC Team, he was the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2019, All-SEC first team and a Bob Cousy Award finalist.
He was chosen in the second round with the 51st pick by the Boston Celtics, which signed him to a two-way contract. Splitting his time with the Maine Red Claws, he was named the NBA G League Rookie of the Year after averaging 18.0 points, 7.3 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.9 steals in 36 contests.
For the next couple of seasons he went between the G League and 10-day contracts with Toronto and Washington of the NBA.
In 2022-23 after the G League season ended, Waters was selected with the first pick overall in the 2022 Baloncesto Superior Nacional draft by the Gigantes de Carolina where he averaged 17.8 points and 8.0 assists. He was selected as the BSN Rookie of the Year. In July 2023, Waters helped the Gigantes win their first BSN title.
He would then play in China for a year before returning to Gigantes de Carolina.
Waters, 26, is of Puerto Rican descent and played for the Puerto Rico’s men’s national basketball team in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup where he led the event in steals.
The men’s basketball competition of the Paris Olympics will be broadcast on the NBC family of networks and streamed on Peacock. Competition begins on July 27.
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