Young Puerto Rican point guard Johned Walker joins Overtime League

MIAMI (United States) - Overtime Elite, a basketball league built from the millions of internet followers from the basketball brand Overtime, kicks off the inaugural season on Oct. 29, providing a league for high school-aged players to make professional wages, with ages in the league ranging from 16 to 18 and give them exposure and a path to a professional league.

Of those playing within Overtime’s newest venture is Johned Walker, an 18-year-old 5’10 point guard from Puerto Rico who lived in Florida attending Central Point Christian Academy.

“I want to be in the best league in the world, and I think Overtime Elite is going to prepare me for that,” said Walker.

Excelling at the junior national team level for his home country, Walker’s performance in the Americas had caught eyes when he was just 16 years old, at the FIBA U16 Americas Championship in Brazil in 2019.

Walker had averaged 12.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists during the tournament including two 20-point games and four performances with at least eight rebounds.

Leading Puerto Rico in both points and rebounds per game, Walker had emerged as a young leader for the next generation of Puerto Rican basketball players as he set his goal on the next level of play to put Puerto Rico’s men’s basketball on the map.

“There is a lot of talent that Puerto Rico has been seeing in basketball, and I want to be part of it, it is my goal to work to be at the World Cup and the Olympics in the future,” said Walker. “I think I can offer a way for more Puerto Rican players to feel like they can play.”

With an Americas Championship under his belt, Walker also represented Puerto Rico on the international stage at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Latvia during the summer of 2021, averaging 6.6 points and 2.4 rebounds per game, though Walker had three different games with 11 points against other talented basketball nations Canada, Australia and Mali.

The Puerto Rico men’s national team is currently ranked sixth in the Americas region and 19th in the world, and Walker intends to help grow the game with his own personal skills and lift Puerto Rico into a dominant basketball country.

From the class of 2022, Walker is a four-star prospect who plays AAU basketball as a member of Nike Team Florida, and is looking to make a name for not only himself with Overtime’s innovative new league, but also to be a role model for other Puerto Rican men who aim to play in a professional league.

Signing with Overtime Elite on Oct. 13, Walker will be playing for Team OTE, one of three teams in the Overtime Elite league.

“I have the opportunity to play with the best players in the world who are the same age, so it’s really good, it’s a lot of exposure for all of us, we got the NBA, the European league, they all have eyes on this league, and it will be very competitive,” said Walker.

FIBA