Inside The Huskies

Former Husky Guard Justin Dentmon Has Still Got Game

The former University of Washington player has turned up in The Basketball Tournament, a 24-team, $1 million winner-take-all tournament in the Midwest.

Dan Raley

Former Husky Guard Justin Dentmon Has Still Got Game
Former Husky Guard Justin Dentmon Has Still Got Game /

Justin Dentmon is one of those feel-good success stories.

No, he didn't become an NBA star like he wanted, but he got a taste.

He used his University of Washington experience to leave hometown poverty levels behind in Illinois, get an education in Seattle and see the world, all while bouncing a basketball.

Just this week, while pro and college teams in all sports are struggling to get healthy and resume play during the ongoing pandemic, Dentmon turned up on video participating in The Basketball Tournament in Columbus, Ohio. 

TBT is a 24-team, $1 million winner-take-all event televised by ESPN.

Dentmon, who played for the Huskies in 2006-09, dropped in 33 points in a recent game, playing for a Purdue alumni team, Men of Mackey.

He's a 34-year-old man now, filled out and fully bearded like James Harden, who was someone he used guard in college. He looks playful and happy, as this video clip seems to indicate.

Fourteen years ago, Dentmon and his family in Carbondale, Illinois, shared his personal story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which was both heartbreaking and inspiring. His mother brought him into this world when she was 13. An Illinois state trooper coached, mentored and escorted him to the UW. 

Dentmon remembered the electricity going out at his house. 

It was pay the bill or fund Justin's basketball pursuits.

He originally committed to Illinois State but showed up at the UW, even though Illinois made late and somewhat questionable pitch for him, as this P-I story showed during the 2006 NCAA tournament. He played guard alongside Brandon Roy, another strong influence. He was kind of shy.

All Dentmon needed was a chance at life and his time in the Northwest helped facilitate that. He had his ups and downs, starting for two years, coming off the bench as a junior and being named All-Pac-10 as a senior.

He went undrafted by the NBA, but he later played eight games for the San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors and Dallas Mavericks. 

He was MVP of the then-NBA D-League.

For the past dozen years, he has competed for teams in China, Turkey, Lithuania, Lebanon and now France. 

Scoring a lot of points, winning awards, drawing more than 5,000 Twitter followers.

As this TBT highlight clip demonstrates, Dentmon has moves that never quit.

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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