Jamestown Native Mason Walters Wins Swiss League MVP of the Week

Mason Walters, the 24-year-old forward from Jamestown who played at Jamestown High School and the University of Jamestown before a year at the University of Wyoming, has become the best player on his Swiss Basketball League team this season, capping a dominant stretch by earning the Hoops Agents Player of the Week award for round 19 of the Swiss SBL on February 20.

Walters, in his first season with Starwings Basket Basel, delivered a 28-point, 12-rebound double-double against Union NE, shooting a perfect 100 percent from 2-point range as Starwings edged their opponent 80-78. The performance put him at the top of a season already full of strong outings, including a 21-point, 11-rebound effort in an 81-70 loss to Fribourg. His season averages rank fifth in the entire Swiss SBL in both scoring, at 21.7 points per game, and rebounding, at 9.0 per game, while he is shooting 65.0 percent from the field.

Starwings, represented through the agency One Motive Sports on Walters' behalf, holds a 10-7 record and sits third in the nine-team SBL first division.

The path to Basel was not a straight line. After a year playing at Wyoming, Walters spent the summer of 2024 training in Jamestown and in Jonesboro, Arkansas, waiting for a professional opportunity to materialize. When the Swiss league came calling, he embraced the chance fully.

"I decided to pursue international basketball because I think it's a very unique opportunity to continue to play a game that I really love, get paid, (and) ... travel the world and experience different places of the world I wouldn't have ever imagined traveling to as a kid," Walters said.

The adjustment to European play required adaptation. Starwings opened the season with scrimmages against two German teams and three Swiss teams before league play began, and the schedule runs once or twice a week with playoffs starting in early April and potentially extending through late May.

"It is a lot different from playing in the U.S.," Walters said. "Each country has their own style of play, and there are so many different leagues and places to play."

The season has carried a personal dimension beyond statistics. The entire Walters family, along with his fiancee, traveled to Switzerland to watch him play a few months ago, the first time his family witnessed him compete at the professional level.

"(That) has been by far the coolest part of my career so far," Walters said. "It is kind of a full circle moment for me, just having them here watching me play professionally in Switzerland and remembering them sacrificing weekends to travel around North Dakota so I could play in different basketball tournaments in middle school. It will be a memory I will never forget."

The former Jamestown Blue Jay standout has proven himself the most valuable player on his club through the first half of the season, and with Starwings chasing a stronger playoff position before April, Walters' numbers suggest there is more to come.