Like the world\u2019s easiest game of Where\u2019s Waldo, you can usually spot Leon \u201cSonny\u201d Watson in any photo of reigning MVP A\u2019ja Wilson on the job. At 6 feet, 8 inches tall, the Aces\u2019 security director is hard to miss \u2014 and always there.<\/p>\n
Watson\u2019s demeanor and stature is intimidating to outsiders. He has a background that affirms he\u2019s not someone to mess with. But within the Aces\u2019 organization, Watson\u2019s nickname is often uttered in a sing-song tone that reflects just how fond everyone is of him. The same experiences that hardened him are what make his presence with the Aces so valuable.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just a warm, kindhearted person \u2014 and someone that I know that could take a damn bullet for me, which is crazy,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Watson showcased that duality at almost 10 p.m. in the media room at Michelob Ultra Arena following a 74-72 victory over the Atlanta Dream, the Aces\u2019 eighth straight win.<\/p>\n
Freshly 49 years old, he stood at the doorway with his arms crossed after ushering Wilson to the podium. His eyes steadily panned back and forth between the front of the room and the back wall, silently surveying for potential threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Sonny\u2019s birthday y\u2019all! Everybody wish Sonny a happy birthday!\u201d Wilson exclaimed before taking questions.<\/p>\n
Watson finally cracked a smile when someone responded to Wilson\u2019s celebratory declaration by playing the kind of air horn sound often used to hype up the crowd at a nightclub.<\/p>\n
Attentive, trustworthy<\/p>\n
Wilson has a consistent pregame warmup routine. Every game, the three-time MVP sprints out of the tunnel to the sound of cheers. As she shoots from each range and practices one-on-one moves, the early crowd watches in anticipation for her to hit the jets again.<\/p>\n
Even on his birthday, Watson didn\u2019t miss a beat. Well before she prepared for her sprint back, he signaled to an Aces staffer to move something too small to see from the path she was sure to take so that she wouldn\u2019t trip.<\/p>\n
Wilson doesn\u2019t take it for granted.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe sees things before I even think about them, and I\u2019m a pretty aware type of person,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Private about her relationship with Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo, Wilson didn\u2019t hesitate to mention her boyfriend when talking about Watson.<\/p>\n
\u201cSonny is just a huge part of my family. He looks after my parents when I\u2019m in game. He looks after Bam when I\u2019m in different situations,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m truly grateful to have somebody like that in my circle, because I don\u2019t really invite a lot of people in. Especially now at this stage in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson, a devout member of the BeyHive, knows that her fan base refers to Watson as \u201cJulius\u201d in a reference to Beyonce\u2019s longtime bodyguard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hilarious,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when we talk about men that are going to protect at all costs, the similarities are there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson doesn\u2019t just look out for Wilson and the Aces. He also tries to sharpen their game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does kind of give me pointers,\u201d Wilson said with a smile, declining to provide specifics. \u201cIt scared me at first. I thought something was going on, but it\u2019s pretty cool to see the game from his point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aces coach Becky Hammon doesn\u2019t mind his input, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe texts me all the time. We talk. He was a high level player.\u201d Hammon said. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s more important how much the (players) trust him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Just dominant\u2019<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a reason the Aces enjoy Watson\u2019s expertise on and off the court. He was close to being in their shoes.<\/p>\n
Watson, who wasn\u2019t introduced to basketball until the seventh grade, grew up in Los Angeles with dreams of becoming a professional boxer. But his lanky, fast frame translated to the court \u2014 and eventually landed him in the hospital at the start of his senior year at Crenshaw High School.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to get 44 stitches in my right shoulder,\u201d Watson said. \u201cI got a scar that I will never get rid of. I see it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
In December 1993, Crenshaw was an unstoppable basketball juggernaut, and Watson was its standout center. With three minutes left in the first half of a key game against Faith Baptist, Watson invigorated the crowd by slamming down a put-back.<\/p>\n
The emphatic bucket shattered the backboard and eventually silenced the audience upon the realization that Watson, primed to help his team to a second consecutive California State Division I championship, was seriously hurt. It wasn\u2019t the glass that lacerated Watson\u2019s shoulder, but the fallen rim.<\/p>\n
Marques Johnson, a former NBA player and college basketball Hall of Famer, watched as a Crenshaw alumnus and father. His son, Kristian Johnson, was Watson\u2019s teammate. The elder Johnson had also grown close with Watson, working with him as an AAU coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been in a situation like that where I actually witnessed a shattered backboard. You could see the white meat. It was a nasty, gruesome kind of gash,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
The game stopped as Watson was taken to a hospital with Crenshaw leading 71-23. His team went on to win the state championship, but, with Watson sidelined, fell short of a national title despite a national No. 2 ranking by USA Today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we had Leon, we would have won,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt was a cruel twist of fate because we were without one of the most dominant bigs in the country. He blocked about 10 shots a game in one tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trying to save a life<\/p>\n
Being referred to as \u201cLeon\u201d is a tell for Watson. He was named after his father, who used \u201cSonny\u201d as a nickname first, and Watson isn\u2019t likely to respond to anything else now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m called Leon, I know I knew you from when I was in my youth,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n
If you know that name, it\u2019s likely that you also know the rest of his story.<\/p>\n
After recovering from his shoulder injury, Watson continued his career at Dixie Community College in Utah, where he was considered one of the nation\u2019s top 10 prospects, according to a 1995 Los Angeles Times article.<\/p>\n
Watson thought his earth-shattering high school dunk would be his \u201conce-in-a-lifetime\u201d experience on the court. Then, he found himself in a familiar but safer situation when he halted a game at Salt Lake Community College after he broke some of the foundation of the rim.<\/p>\n
He went on to play in the NBA Summer League, along with stints for the Belize national team, the Harlem Globetrotters and overseas clubs in Europe and the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Wilson knows about his shattered backboard days and credits them for his ability to understand her.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows how fans are going to interact from his playing days,\u201d she said. \u201cHe knows that some days I may not want to (be bothered) because he\u2019s probably had that feeling. And he stops it from a mile away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson retired after 11 years because he knew he could make a bigger impact elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was tired of dealing with the politics of sports and all the favoritism for some,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Once his playing career ended, he searched for purpose in volunteer work, joining programs to address drug addiction, gangs, human trafficking and homelessness, issues he said he saw \u201cup close\u201d growing up in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to do something to make a change in the community where I lived,\u201d he said. \u201cI know you can\u2019t save every life, but if I can just save or change a few, it\u2019s all worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Time keeps proving that the basketball community is the one he was never meant to leave.<\/p>\n
Security every player deserves<\/p>\n
A wide smile flashed on Brittney Griner\u2019s face as she clasped hands with Watson while warming up for the Dream. When the veteran center got inadvertently hit in the face during the game, Watson was one of the first people to rush to her aid despite his priorities with the home team.<\/p>\n
Their time in Phoenix overlapped, as Watson worked for the NBA\u2019s Suns and WNBA\u2019s Mercury, for which Griner was a star player until she left for Atlanta as a free agent in the offseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just always super intentional, like went above and beyond,\u201d Griner said. \u201cHe knows basketball. I always felt super protected when he was around. \u2026 I feel like every player in this league deserves to have that sense of security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heightened security has become an issue for the WNBA. In 2023, Griner\u2019s first season back after a 10-month detainment in a Russian prison, she was confronted in the airport by an inflammatory blogger while traveling with the Mercury.<\/p>\n
The league called Griner\u2019s safety a top priority and said they had planned for her to fly private even before the incident, but didn\u2019t instate charter flights for the entire league until the 2024 season. In recent years, other high profile players have dealt with stalkers and spoken about growing unease when they travel to away games.<\/p>\n
Hammon, a former WNBA player who also coached in the NBA, never understood why increased safety measures took so long.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came into this league, I couldn\u2019t believe it wasn\u2019t there already,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy isn\u2019t security traveling? Why aren\u2019t they on the bus with us? My first year as a coach, I really pushed hard for (more).\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Watson is so frequently seen with the Aces.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe needs to be around. You\u2019re not going to build that trust unless he\u2019s around all the time,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cThey know they can call him up at 4 a.m., and it\u2019s never going to get back to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It just so happens that Watson is now visible enough for his hometown crowd to take note.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw a picture of him with (Wilson). She\u2019s walking down the hall, he\u2019s in the background,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just how Wilson likes it. She knows that if other people can see Watson, he saw them first.<\/p>\n
Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @CallieJLaw<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n Up next<\/p>\n Who: Chicago Sky at Aces<\/p>\n When: 6 p.m. Sunday<\/p>\n Where: T-Mobile Arena<\/p>\n TV: KMCC-34, NBAtv<\/p>\n Radio: KWWN (1100 AM, 100.9 FM)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like the world\u2019s easiest game of Where\u2019s Waldo, you can usually spot Leon \u201cSonny\u201d Watson in any photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-137817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}