‘It takes a community’: EWU’s LeJuan Watts leans on siblings to navigate hard times, flourish as a freshmen with Eagles

Three of LeJuan Watts’ siblings sat in the stands at Reese Court in February sharing a rare opportunity to see their younger brother play basketball in person.

The five Watts siblings grew up in Fresno, California, and the oldest three still live there. Walter, 35, is married with a child on the way. Bri, 29, has a house just down the street. Alexis, 24, lives with an aunt and sees her siblings plenty. DeSean, 19, is a freshman at Sacramento State, where he plays football.

On this day, the oldest three were all there for their 20-year-old brother LeJuan, who played well, with 15 points, six rebounds and three steals in Eastern Washington’s loss to Weber State.

Earlier this week, Watts was named Big Sky Freshman of the Year; on Sunday, the Eagles (21-10) will open the Big Sky Tournament as the bracket’s No. 1 seed, facing 10th-seeded Sacramento State (9-23) at 4:30 p.m.

“It was so much fun. I don’t think I sat down the entire game,” said Bri, who played four years at Colorado. “Luckily, they didn’t have me on the sideline because I would have been in the game.”

Walter played football at Utah, skipping over basketball – the sport beloved by his brother and their father – because, as he put it, “I didn’t get the height like LeJuan did.

“If I would’ve got his height, I would be dunking on him right now. But since he can dunk on me, I try to stay away from him on the basketball court.”

Alexis participated in track growing up, but her enjoyment of sports was more secondhand than it was for her siblings. She grew up watching LeJuan build a love for basketball, and she has seen perhaps more than most siblings how the sport has been an essential part of his growth as a person.

“It’s a beautiful thing to watch,” Alexis said. “We can’t do it all by ourselves. It takes a community. And LeJuan has a lot of good people around him.”

That the Watts are so close is a testament to the effort they put into maintaining their relationships. Walter said he often comes home after work and suddenly his sister Bri is walking in the door, too. LeJuan talks to his siblings every day. Alexis said she keeps her phone out at home “waiting for something to happen” because, to her, there is never a dull moment in the Watts family.

“We’re always laughing,” she said. “As long as we’re all together, it’s like we’re kids, no matter what, no matter how old we get.”

Yet they are also so close because of sad moments. In 2016, their father, Walter Watts, died of a heart attack. Two years later, Rachel Watts, their mother, died of cancer.

“Before games, I usually listen to music that makes me think about her, and I listen to her tell me to calm down,” LeJuan said. “I can hear it in the back of my head: ‘Just calm down.’ Sometimes I play too aggressive and it comes out, and I can just hear her: ‘Calm down.’ “

When LeJuan’s siblings watch him play basketball, the similarities to their father, who played at Utah in the early 1990s, are obvious.

“They both had a love for the game,” said Walter, who was given his father’s name. “From what I hear, it was easy to coach Dad, and that’s what people say all the time about LeJuan.”

‘She would lay down the law’

Walter Watts played for Rick Majerus during Utah basketball’s glory years, including the 1990-91 team that reached the Sweet 16. Standing 6-foot-8, he played basketball at 280 pounds and later spent time in the NFL.

His son Walter, LeJuan’s oldest brother, chose to play football at Utah, and from 2006 to 2010 he played various positions along the offensive line.

But their father didn’t take great care of his health, Walter said, and soon after he died, their mother Rachel – who had two heart surgeries – was faced with health issues. In the midst of this, Bri was finishing her basketball career and college degree at Colorado. Alexis, LeJuan and DeSean were still living at home under their mother’s care.

“With our dad, he was the glue to the family. The man of the house,” Walter said. “(Mom) was the gentle giant. … She was in charge of everything at home.”

Sometimes Rachel would be hospitalized for two weeks at a time, Alexis said, leaving her to care for her younger brothers while cousins would help in the ways they could, such as by bringing them meals.

“That’s how we became close,” Alexis said, “by her making sure I knew what to do if she were to be gone for two weeks.”

If anything major were to happen, Alexis said, the older siblings would come in, ensuring she didn’t have to carry as much of the load.

Around the time Rachel died, Bri moved back into the house. When Rachel went back to the hospital for the final time, Bri stayed with her as long as she was there.

Then she went home and stepped in to help parent LeJuan and DeSean.

“I say ‘parent’ because I’m never going to be their mother,” Bri said. “But I tried my best.”

A large whiteboard tracked the brothers’ grades. Anything less than a B meant that LeJuan and DeSean lost privileges to use their phones or see their friends.

“She was the one who could just click a button and then they would have no phone service,” Walter said. “She would lay down the law.”

The dual roles of sibling and quasi-parent were not always easy for Walter and Bri to negotiate. They also did so in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic when they got to spend a lot of time together as a family.

It wasn’t always easy for LeJuan to take the guidance of his siblings.

“You don’t want to listen to your older siblings about anything,” LeJuan said. “We were hardheaded, me and my little brother, about a lot of stuff. We would argue a lot.”

Still, looking back, LeJuan appreciates what they did.

“I think it made us. We all communicate. We came together,” he said. “It just made us who we are.”

As LeJuan got older, his basketball game continued to improve. A first-team all-conference player at Bullard High School, he attracted college coaches such as Eastern Washington’s David Riley.

“We talked to Walter and Bri a lot,” Riley said. “Bri has done an incredible job keeping that family together. She’s kind of the momma bear

.”

‘He played hard’

With a 6-6 frame and listed at 233 pounds, Watts has the physical tools that draw the attention of Eastern Washington’s football coaches whenever they see him play. But his love has always been directed toward basketball, primarily because of his father.

“I used to watch all his clips. He played hard,” LeJuan said. “He wasn’t really a shooter, but he played hard, he played smart, and rebounded, ran – everything I try to do on the basis of just playing hard.”

With a full rotation on a roster that eventually won a Big Sky regular-season championship, the Eagles coaches chose to have LeJuan redshirt his first year at Eastern.

“The first year he didn’t even know the plays,” senior guard Ellis Magnuson said. “That was his holdback. He was gifted athletically.”

But, Magnuson said, Watts is “like a sponge. I’m really proud of him.”

Watts has stepped into a crucial sixth-man role for the Eagles this season, playing 22.7 minutes per game and averaging 9.6 points. Only junior Cedric Coward – a first-team All-Big Sky selection – has more rebounds than Watts (209 to 157), and his 29 steals rank third behind Coward (32) and junior Casey Jones (31)

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When her brothers left for college, Bri discovered that her life was suddenly different. She lived in a huge house, and after years keeping track of two younger brothers, she was alone.

“This is probably the hardest part of my life right now, because I went from going to college to immediately taking care of these two (brothers) and looking after my sister, and then going to ‘nobody’s here,’ ” Bri said. “It’s kind of like an empty nest.”

Bri chose to move out of the home the family grew up in – and into a house just down the street from her older brother.

“It’s truly the best thing, honestly,” Bri said. “We are all we have, so dang near living together is literally the best.”

Alexis isn’t on the same street, but she is around plenty.

The weight of the family’s loss gets to Walter sometimes. They have been through a lot, he said, and yet he sees the blessings in how it all has gone.

“It’s a hurt that we all have in our heart, but we carry it, and we’re able to turn up our love even more,” Walter said. “That’s why people see LeJuan or Lexi or my sister Bri or my brother DeSean, and they don’t understand how these people are so happy all the time. But sometimes you have to go through some dark days so you can be thankful for every other day.”