Mustafa Shakur during his Arizona playing days from 2003-2007
Former Arizona Wildcats point guard Mustafa Shakur enjoyed tonight his first experience of NBA basketball in three years, playing six minutes off the bench in Oklahoma City’s 109-86 loss to visiting Dallas.
Shakur scored a point (on one of two free throws made) with two assists. He missed the two field goals he tried, including a three-pointer. Oklahoma City signed him to a 10-day contract, marking his first return to the NBA since he played in 22 games with the Washington Wizards in 2011.
Shakur, 6’3″ and 190 pounds, appeared in 37 games (with 36 starts) with the Erie BayHawks and Tulsa 66ers of the NBA D-League this season, averaging 16.7 points, 6.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.92 steals in 34.4 minutes per game.
Since joining the 66ers on Jan. 22, Shakur averaged 18.6 points, 6.7 assists, 4.6 rebounds, 2.65 steals and 36.2 minutes in 20 games (19 starts) while being named NBA D-League Player of the Month during February.
When he was with the Wizards three years ago, Shakur, who wears No. 22 for Oklahoma City, averaged 2.3 points, 1.1 assists and 1.0 rebound in 7.2 minutes per game. He had a 10-day contract with the Thunder roster during the 2009-10 season but did not appear in any games.
Shakur played in France and Italy after his stint with Washington and returned to the U.S. last year to play for Erie, which is near his Philadelphia home.
Shakur played at Arizona from 2003-2007 and averaged 10.1 points and 5.1 assists for the Wildcats. He is the last starting point guard of the Lute Olson era. Olson took a leave of absence in the 2007-08 and retired before the 2008-09 season.
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.
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