Gonzaga's Nigel Williams-Goss has a special place in his heart for Spokane: 'I owed the community something'

'I just felt like the city, the school and the community embraced me so much when I was here that, I was like, ‘if I can do any little thing to give back, I would love to do that,'" Williams-Goss said

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Nigel Williams-Goss has yet to follow in the footsteps of many former Zags who’ve settled down in Spokane once their playing days are past them, though the ex-Gonzaga All-American has certainly not been forgotten by the Inland Northwest community.

While the 6-foot-2 Oregonian has spent much of the last eight years playing in the top professional leagues across Europe, Williams-Goss has managed to carve out a chunk of his short offseason to hold a youth summer basketball camp in Liberty Lake, Washington, where he works on a variety of skills with kids for three days at the HUB Sports Center. The camp has sold out every year since it was started in 2017.

“I’m here for my seventh camp, which is crazy,” Williams-Goss said. “I thought I’d be long forgotten by now, especially by the youth.”

Whether out of modesty or ignorance, Williams-Goss was wrong to assume his name would fade into irrelevancy. After all, this was the All-American point guard who was at the helm of Mark Few’s first Final Four team not so long ago, as Williams-Goss and company helped set the program up for future success after going 37-2 and appearing in the national championship game in 2017. This was a player who had his choice of schools and maybe could’ve given the NBA a shot when he announced he was leaving Washington two years earlier, though he chose to play the long game, redshirt at Gonzaga and refine his game before enjoying a decorated pro career in Europe.

At the time of his transfer, however, Williams-Goss wasn’t so sure Spokane was the place for him. The former McDonald’s High School All-American was coming off two very productive seasons with the Huskies, and though the team struggled, Williams-Goss immediately became one of the most coveted transfers in the country once he decided it was time for a new home. His phone was getting calls from all the big-name head coaches — Thad Matta, Tom Izzo, Billy Donovan.

Nothing from coach Few, however. Williams-Goss instead had been in touch with Bulldogs assistant coach Brian Michaelson, another Oregon native, and thus had his eyes set on potentially going elsewhere. UNLV, Texas, Georgetown, Michigan State and Arkansas were all in the mix for Williams-Goss.

That is, until his first phone call with coach Few about a week into his recruitment process. 

“He described being the point guard at Gonzaga like being a pitcher for the Yankees,” Williams-Goss said. “You’re gonna be on Main Street, you’re gonna play in the biggest games across the country. We have huge, huge goals and the responsibility is gonna fall on you.

"That’s part of the reason why I chose to come here. It just fit my mindset. That pressure, that expectation, and then the work that the staff and everyone was going to put in was just a great fit.”

Williams-Goss had to wait his turn as a redshirt player in 2015-16, along with Jonathan Williams and Jeremy Jones, before taking over point guard duties the following season. With an improved jumpshot, Williams-Goss starred at 16.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. He shot 36.8% from 3-point range as the Zags stormed to the NCAA Tournament with just one blemish on their record. 

“I definitely sacrificed some [NBA] draft stock not leaving [college] as a sophomore — obviously the NBA loves young [players] — so sacrificing some of that for that [2016-17] run, I wouldn’t trade it in for the world,” Williams-Goss said. “Those are some of my best friends today. I was just at Jeremy Jones’ wedding … I think we had like 10 guys from that team at his wedding. It just goes to show how tight-knit of a group that team was.”

There aren’t as many Zags playing professionally overseas as there are currently in the NBA, though Williams-Goss still has the occasional run-in with Kevin Pangos or Silas Melson from time to time. Not to mention Serbian big man Filip Petrusev was Williams-Goss’ teammate on Olympiacos (Greece) this past season, as the two guided Piraeus to the EuroLeague Final Four as key contributors to the squad.

Williams-Goss had already reached the pinnacle of basketball in Europe the season prior with Real Madrid, which won the EuroLeague championship in 2023. He was also named the Serbian League MVP and won the Serbian Cup in 2018 with Olympiacos before a short stint with the Utah Jazz in 2019-20, the team that drafted him as the 55th overall pick in 2017. 

Back overseas once again, Williams-Goss embraces the style of play and day-to-day grind that he once enjoyed years ago at Gonzaga. And even then, he still finds ways to make an annual trip back to Spokane in the summers.

“I think everyone knows how much I love Spokane and the Zags,” Williams-Goss said. “I felt like I owed the community something. I didn’t know what that something was but I just felt like the city, the school and the community embraced me so much when I was here that, I was like, ‘if I can do any little thing to give back, I would love to do that.’”

Williams-Goss shared more about his time at Gonzaga, his professional career in Europe and much more on a new episode of Forever Zags.

WATCH THE FULL EPISODE BELOW:

Produced by Thomas Gallagher.

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