Early life

Stevenson was born in Fresno, California. His father, Darryl Stevenson, never married the mother of his child, and eventually was forcibly placed in a facility after threatening family members. Darryl signed a court order agreeing he had a duty to support his son, but eventually murdered his own mother and died of cancer at the age of 36. DeShawn's name was tattooed on his chest. Due to the absence of his father, DeShawn lived with his godparents in Easton, California. He played high school ball at the same school his father had played at, and won a state championship his junior year.

Stevenson signed with the Kansas Jayhawks in the fall of his senior year. Jayhawks head coach Roy Williams called him his "most gifted recruit ever". As a senior, Stevenson averaged 30.4 points, 9.7 rebounds and 6.2 assists a game. Not only was he named to the McDonald's All-American team, he scored 25 points to lead the West to a 146-120 win, and won the slam-dunk contest. His mother advised him not to go straight to the NBA, but after there were irregularities with his SAT test, Stevenson did indeed enter the league straight out of high school.

NBA career

Utah Jazz

Stevenson was picked by the Utah Jazz with the 23rd selection of the 2000 NBA draft.

Stevenson appeared in 222 regular season games during his time with Utah. He averaged 5.9 ppg., 1.9 rpg. and 1.2 apg. in 16.7 minpg. during that time. Stevenson played in five career playoff outings. At 19 years old, he became the youngest player to ever play and start for the Jazz during the 2000-01 season. In 2001, Stevenson finished second in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. Later that year, Stevenson pleaded no contest to having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

On February 19, 2004, Stevenson and a future second round draft pick were acquired by the Orlando Magic from the Utah Jazz in exchange for guard-forward Gordan Giricek.

Orlando Magic

Stevenson played with the Orlando Magic for 2½ seasons. He had his best year during the 2005-06 season when he averaged 11.0 ppg, 2.9 rpg, and 2.0 apg. Stevenson opted out of the third and final year of his contract with Orlando and on August 5, 2006 he signed a two-year minimum contract with the Washington Wizards.

Washington Wizards

On August 5, 2006, Stevenson signed a two-year contract with the Washington Wizards worth the NBA minimum salary. Stevenson quickly adjusted to coach Eddie Jordan's system, averaging 11.2 ppg, 2.7 rpg, and 2.7 apg in his first season with Washington. Following the 2006-07 season, he opted-out of the second year of the his contract to test free agency. On July 16, 2007, Stevenson re-signed with the Wizards on a 4-year, $15 million deal.

On the early morning of August 20, 2007, a 31-year-old man, Curtis Ruff, was shot and injured at Stevenson's home, following an argument with women that were invited from Destiny's Club in Orlando. Circumstances of the incident remain unclear.

After Stevenson, with a sore knee, scored a career-high 33 points, including a game winning three-pointer as time expired in a February 25, 2008 victory over the New Orleans Hornets, Wizards coach Eddie Jordan described Stevenson by saying, "He's a warrior, man, a true warrior. His confidence is growing, he's making threes, he's just a true pro. This is a man's league and he is man. In the dictionary next to that word there is a picture of DeShawn Stevenson."

At the start of the 2008-09 season, Stevenson struggled and could not bring his offensive game to the level it was in 2007. As a result, Stevenson's minutes dipped slightly with the development of second year shooting guard Nick Young and former Maryland standout Juan Dixon.

Dallas Mavericks

On February 13, 2010, Stevenson was traded to the Dallas Mavericks along with Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton and Quinton Ross. He became the first player in NBA history to wear the number 92 on his jersey. Stevenson chose number 92 because he wore number 9 in Orlando and number 2 with Utah and Washington. He used his player option and made $4.15 million during the 2010-11 NBA season. On June 12, 2011, Stevenson won the NBA championship when the Mavericks beat the Miami Heat 105-95 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. In that game, Stevenson made three of five three point shots, resulting in 9 crucial points. Even more important than any contributions he made on offense may have been his assignment to guard LeBron James throughout the series, in part causing James to average significantly lower than his regular season average on most major statistical categories.

New Jersey Nets

On December 23, 2011, Stevenson signed one-year $2.5 million contract with the New Jersey Nets.

Atlanta Hawks

On July 11, 2012, the Nets traded Stevenson (sign-and-trade), Jordan Farmar, Jordan Williams, Anthony Morrow, and Johan Petro to the Atlanta Hawks for Joe Johnson. On August 2, 2013, he was waived by the Hawks.

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2000-01	Utah	40	2	7.3	.341	.083	.684	.7	.5	.3	.1	2.2
2001-02	Utah	67	23	16.9	.385	.080	.698	2.0	1.7	.4	.4	4.9
2002-03	Utah	61	8	12.5	.401	.333	.691	1.4	.7	.4	.1	4.6
2003-04	Utah	54	54	28.0	.445	.233	.669	3.3	1.7	.5	.3	11.4
2003-04	Orlando	26	24	35.9	.404	.293	.690	4.6	2.5	.9	.0	11.2
2004-05	Orlando	55	27	19.8	.408	.373	.554	1.9	1.3	.3	.2	7.8
2005-06	Orlando	82	82	32.3	.460	.133	.744	2.9	2.0	.7	.2	11.0
2006-07	Washington	82	82	29.5	.461	.404	.704	2.6	2.7	.8	.2	11.2
2007-08	Washington	82	82	31.3	.386	.383	.797	2.9	3.1	.8	.2	11.2
2008-09	Washington	32	25	27.7	.312	.271	.533	2.4	3.1	.7	.1	6.6
2009-10	Washington	40	13	15.4	.282	.177	.720	1.6	1.1	.3	.1	2.2
2009-10	Dallas	24	5	11.1	.283	.320	.700	1.1	.5	.2	.0	2.0
2010-11	Dallas	72	54	16.1	.388	.378	.767	1.5	1.1	.3	.1	5.3
2011-12	New Jersey	51	30	18.8	.285	.283	.563	2.0	.8	.4	.1	2.9
2012-13	Atlanta	56	31	20.7	.374	.364	.522	2.2	.9	.5	.1	5.1
Career		824	542	22.3	.406	.340	.698	2.2	1.6	.5	.2	7.2

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2001	Utah	1	0	8.0	.500	.000	.000	1.0	.0	.0	.0	2.0
2003	Utah	4	0	9.3	.400	.000	1.000	1.8	1.0	.3	.0	4.5
2007	Washington	4	4	30.5	.196	.158	.429	2.5	1.8	.5	.8	6.0
2008	Washington	6	6	32.7	.367	.389	.889	2.2	3.0	1.0	.0	12.3
2010	Dallas	2	0	3.0	.000	.000	.000	.0	.0	.0	.0	.0
2011	Dallas	21	18	15.8	.349	.397	.750	.9	.6	.5	.1	4.5
2013	Atlanta	4	0	11.3	.600	.600	.000	2.5	.3	.0	.0	2.3
Career		42	28	17.8	.327	.353	.791	1.4	1.0	.5	.1	5.3

[ Source: Wikipedia ]