Dutch professional basketball player (born 1988)

Worthy Donovan Rafael de Jong (born 14 March 1988) is a Dutch professional basketball player, who currently plays for ZZ Leiden of the Dutch Basketball League (DBL). De Jong is part of the Dutch national team. Standing at 6:ft 4.3 in (1.94 m), De Jong plays the shooting guard or the small forward position.

De Jong is the all-time leader in points, rebounds and *ists for ZZ Leiden.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Professional career
• 3 International career
  • 3.1 Statistics
• 4 Honours
  • 4.1 Club
  • 4.2 Individual
• 5 References

Early life

Born in Paramaribo, De Jong and his parents moved to Amsterdam when he was 2 years old. There, he started playing basketball at age 11. He started playing at Club 2000, motivated by his father who was a basketball player in Suriname.

In 2006, De Jong moved to the United States to attend Ranger College on a scholarship. Later, he played with Orca's Urk in the Promotiedivisie.

Professional career

De Jong signed with the Rotterdam Challengers for the 2009–10 season, starting his professional career.

On 19 July 2010, de Jong signed a deal with ZZ Leiden. Under head coach Toon van Helfteren, De Jong was a rotation player in his first seasons. In the 2010–11 season, De Jong won his first DBL *le after Leiden beat Groningen 4–3 in the Finals. In the following seasons, De Jong grew into a star in the DBL. In the 2012-13 season, De Jong won his second *le after Leeuwarden was downed 4–0. In the 2014 offseason, he signed a new 3-year contract with Leiden. In the 2015–16 season, De Jong won his first DBL Most Valuable Player Award of his career.

In June 2016, De Jong signed with SOMB of the French second national division Pro B. In the 2016–17 Pro B season, De Jong averaged 9.7 points, 3 rebounds and 2 *ists per game, as SOMB finished in 17th place and was relegated to the third division Nationale Masculine 1 (NM1).

On 28 June 2017, de Jong returned to his former club ZZ Leiden by signing a one-year contract. In June 2018, he extended his contract for two more seasons. de Jong signed a three-year extension with the team on May 29, 2020. He won the DBL Defensive Player of the Year award for the first time in the 2020–21 season. De Jong also won his third championship after defeating Heroes Den Bosch in the finals, and he was named DBL Playoffs MVP in the process.

On April 3, 2022, De Jong announced the 2021–22 season would be his last professional season; he would continue in 3x3 basketball with the Netherlands national team, however.

International career

De Jong plays for the Netherlands national basketball team since he made his debut on 28 July 2012. He made his debut at a major tournament during EuroBasket 2015, where he averaged 9.4 points per game.

Statistics

Honours

Club

ZZ Leiden

• Dutch Basketball League (3): 2010–11, 2012–13, 2020–21
• NBB Cup (2): 2011–12 2018-19
• Dutch Supercups (3): 2011, 2012, 2021

Individual

• DBL Most Valuable Player: 2015–16
• DBL Playoffs MVP: 2021
• DBL All-League Team (4): 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2020–21
• DBL Most Improved Player: 2011–12
• DBL Defensive Player of the Year: 2020–21
• DBL All-Star (5): 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
• DBL All-Star Game MVP: 2016

References