BIO: Devondrick Walker was born in Garland, Texas (USA) where he attended South Garland High School in Garland, Texas. There, he was a three-year letterwinner and during his senior year he averaged 10 points, four assists and four steals per game, earning him all-district honours.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Devondrick Walker made his NBL debut with the South East Melbourne Phoenix at 27 years of age. He scored 16 points in his first game.

In 2019, Walker joined the league’s newest franchise, the South East Melbourne Phoenix. The Phoenix signed Simon Mitchell as their first head coach and shortly after added Boomers and fringe NBA talent Mitch Creek as their marquee player. South East Melbourne then built a core group playing group with Ben Madgen (via Europe), Kyle Adnam (via Melbourne) and Adam Gibson (via Adelaide). Imports John Roberson, Tai Wesley (via Melbourne) and Walker (via state league) were later added to round out the squad.

South East Melbourne’s first game pitted them against cross-town rivals Melbourne. In the first game between the two franchises, tagged ‘The Throwdown’, the Phoenix were able to topple United by three points (91-88) after making 12 of 23 from downtown. The team’s high-octane perimeter shooting would set the tone for the rest of the season, with the team leading the league in points per game (95.4 ppg).

The win came at a cost, however, with Tai Wesley, after scoring eight rapid points, suffering a hamstring injury in the first five minutes of the game, which saw him out of action for the next ten weeks. Import Jaye Crockett (8.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.0 steals) was brought in as an injury replacement during his absence.

Following their Round 1 victory, the Phoenix would keep it rolling, knocking over the Bullets (113-93) and the Hawks (106-102) at home, tipping off their inaugural season with a handsome 3-0 record. Despite the Phoenix taking home victories against relatively good team’s, their first real challenge came in Round 4, where they would play their first away game against Perth. Although the Wildcats’ star duo of Bryce Cotton (16 points) and Terrico White (17 points) started poorly, Perth delivered South East Melbourne their first loss (79-110), ending their season-opening winning streak.

After their trouncing in Western Australia, victories would become a rarity. The Phoenix would go down to the likes of the 36ers, the Kings and twice to United, and after coming into the mid-way point of the season, the Phoenix was the definition of average at this point.

Sitting just outside the top four with a record of six wins and six losses. It was also around this time the Phoenix chose to move on from import Devondrick Walker (7.4 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.9 assists), who, after suffering a fracture in his left foot playing in a Perth pre-season game two years earlier, wasn’t able to deliver the production he was able to beforehand. Keith Benson (5.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks) was signed as his replacement and thought he was a much bigger body, wasn’t able to add much more to the stat sheet.

While South East Melbourne were forced to rely on Creek (20.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.2 steals) and star import John Roberson (20.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 5.5 assists), the next ten rounds would prove to be anything but smooth.

Across the next 16 matchups for South East Melbourne they would go on to accumulate a lacklustre 3 wins and 13 losses, while also finishing their campaign on a eight-game losing streak. With 20 rounds of basketball completed, the Phoenix (9-19) would finish second last.

BRISBANE BULLETS
2022/23
After the Bullets finished second last the season prior. Brisbane had loaded up by adding Boomers big man Aron Baynes and veteran guard Tyler Johnson who had been teammates while playing in the NBA with Phoenix.

Devondrick Walker (via NBL1) was signed as a second import and local talent Harry Froling (via Illawarra), Gorjok Gak (via Europe) and DJ Mitchell (via NBL1), son of former Bullets import Mike Mitchell, were also brought into the squad to complement the returning core of Jason Cadee, Tyrell Harrison, Tanner Krebs and captain Nathan Sobey.

The Bullets off-season recruiting saw many in the media pencil them in as a top four team but with the health of both Sobey coming back from a knee injury that had kept him on the sidelines for half of NBL22 and Baynes returning to the court after a neck injury suffered at the Olympics almost left him paralysed, many questioned their ability to stay healthy.

Six games into the season and the Bullets had yet to win a game. Baynes (11.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.0 assists) was far from the NBA player he was 12 months earlier and Sobey (15.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 4.6 assists) recorded his lowest numbers for points and rebounds in five years.

Brisbane then recorded back-to-back wins, both against Illawarra. The first victory (82-56) on the back of a 17 point, 14 rebound effort from Baynes and the second (86-61) thanks to Sobey, scoring 14 first quarter points and 22 first half points, both career highs. The wins marking the first time Brisbane had won consecutive matches by at least 25-points since February 2007.

A two point victory over a strong Tasmanian team (74-72) gave them a three game winning streak, but just when things started to look positive, the decision was made to release underperforming Walker (9.0 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists) and fire head coach James Duncan.

Walker was replaced by Andrew White (7.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 0.7 assists) and Duncan was replaced by General Manager Sam Mackinnon as interim coach, a move that lasted just three games before assistant coach and former Townsville Crocodile Greg Vanderjagt took the reins for the remainder of the season but the best of the Bullets season was behind them.

Brisbane finished second last again (8-20) with three of their eight wins coming against Illawarra, who recorded their worst season ever.

Diing appeared in only six games for the season, scoring a total of two points.

Devondrick Walker played two seasons in the NBL, playing for both the South East Melbourne Phoenix and the Brisbane Bullets. He averaged 8 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assists in 13 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (837 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.