Part three of our ongoing check-in with former Zags abroad brings even more updates from the global Gonzaga orbit. Some guys are thriving in top-tier European leagues. Some are grinding out double-digit pro careers. Others are writing entirely new chapters—signing historic contracts, becoming naturalized citizens, or, in one case, starring in a romantic comedy. Whatever the path, they’re still playing, still competing, and still carrying a little bit of Spokane with them wherever they go.

Nigel Williams-Goss – Olympiacos / Zalgiris Kaunas (EuroLeague)

Nigel Williams-Goss is still doing what he’s always done—controlling tempo, elevating the floor, and making high-level basketball feel intentional. After a strong second stint with Olympiacos—helping guide them to the 2025 EuroLeague Final Four—he signed a record-breaking €4.5 million contract with Zalgiris Kaunas, the richest deal in the club’s history. Now he’s set to anchor their backcourt.

He earned that payday. During the playoffs against Real Madrid, he dropped 38 points while shooting 55.6% from deep over four games. In the Final Four matchup with Monaco—where the rest of Olympiacos shot a brutal 1-for-19 from three—he was one of only two teammates to reach double figures. Same calm, same impact.

Williams-Goss has played in six countries, earned Serbian Cup MVP honors with Partizan, won a EuroLeague title and ACB championship with Real Madrid, and returned to Olympiacos twice. A brief NBA stint with the Utah Jazz added experience, and now Zalgiris will be his seventh professional destination.

At Gonzaga, after redshirting in 2015–16, he exploded in 2016–17. He averaged career-highs, led Gonzaga to a 37–2 record and their first national championship game, and secured WCC Player of the Year and consensus Second Team All-American honors. His maturity, leadership, and on-court command are still cited as the missing elements that finally got the Bulldogs into the promised land game.

Nigel Williams-Goss may be the most impactful single-season player in Gonzaga history. Eight years later, he’s still orchestrating wins—and collecting the pay that comes with it

Jeremy Pargo (Grindavík – Iceland)

Jeremy Pargo is 38 years old and still absolutely hooping (among other things). Through six games with Grindavík in Iceland’s Úrvalsdeild karla, he’s averaging 25.7 points, 7.3 assists, and 4.3 rebounds in a team-high 36 minutes per game. He’s the engine. He’s the closer. He just helped knock out the reigning national champs in the first round of the playoffs. At an age when most guys have long since packed it in or settled into coaching gigs, Pargo is still out here dropping dimes and calling his own number like it’s 2009.

And that would be enough. That alone—surging through the Icelandic playoffs at 38—would be enough to warrant a few paragraphs of admiration.

But then the internet whispered something truly deranged into my ear: Jeremy Pargo made a feature film.

Not a cameo. Not a low-budget documentary or a YouTube side project. A real-deal romantic comedy, written, produced, and starring Jeremy Pargo. It’s called The Final Play. It’s the first feature from Pargo Productions, his very own independent film company, and was released as a digital video-on-demand, currently available to stream via Amazon Prime as of just a few weeks ago. And yes, it is about a former pro baller, loosely modeled after himself, who’s searching for a fresh start and a shot at real love. It’s about heartbreak, vulnerability, healing, and—allegedly—the redemptive power of emotional risk.

This exists. This is real. You can watch the trailer. He is fully acting in this thing. He is acting, folks.

The synopsis describes it as a “comedic and heartfelt quest for personal fulfillment,” and you know what? That tracks. Pargo has been many things—a Sports Illustrated cover star, a WCC Player of the Year, a EuroLeague All-Second Teamer, a six-continent professional, and a three-time member of Maccabi Tel Aviv. This is the same man who once dropped 37 points in a G League game nearly 11 years after his last NBA appearance. And now, after all that, he’s taking his shot at cinema.

– Jeremy Pargo’s movie “The Final Play” had a private screening last week. Pargo wrote the script and was the lead actor for the movie. His fellow Triplets’ captains even came out to support! pic.twitter.com/JzCmcmcR8C

— The Fourth Man: A BIG3 Podcast (@4thManPod) December 27, 2023

I haven’t watched it yet. I found out about it just now… while writing this. But as of this moment, it has become my highest priority and the only thing I will be able to think about for the rest of the week. I will be watching it. I will be reporting back. Because this is one of the most chaotic and inspired athlete career moves I’ve ever seen. It’s perhaps the biggest swing since Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball, Shaq Fu, or Allen Iverson’s great lost hip hop album. It takes guts. It takes vision. It takes a level of self-belief I find frankly aspirational. I assert here without irony that this is perhaps the coolest, most inspiring, and rad thing I’ve seen a former Zag commit to in their post-Zag careers.

Jeremy Pargo is still out there giving us reasons to root for him. On the court. On the screen. Wherever he wants. What a guy. What a bold, beautiful, fully committed move. I love this. I love him. Hell yeah.

Elias Harris — Bayern Munich (Bundesliga, EuroLeague)

Elias Harris, now 35, is still grinding in the German Bundesliga, averaging 5.6 points per game in under 14 minutes a night for league-leading Bayern Munich. In 2024, he added yet another Bundesliga title and a second consecutive German Cup championship to his already crowded trophy case. After going undrafted in 2013, Harris signed with the Lakers and had a brief NBA stint that included some solid Summer League flashes and a few G-League assignments. But his real professional legacy has been written back home.

Since 2013, Harris has carved out a remarkably steady career in Germany. He spent seven seasons with Brose Bamberg, serving as team captain and winning three league titles and two German Cups. He’s had shorter stints with Ludwigsburg, Zaragoza, and now Bayern, where he remains an elder statesman and valuable rotational big. Harris has also been a consistent contributor to the German national team over the years, always ready to throw his body around and bully smaller forwards off the block.

As a Zag, Harris was as beloved as he was bruising. He was a 6’8” battering ram with a gentle smile and punishing post moves. A three-time First-Team All-WCC selection and WCC Newcomer of the Year in 2010, Harris was a staple of the early-2010s Gonzaga frontcourt—reliable, efficient, and freakishly strong. He had some monster games (21 and 14 against North Carolina, anyone?) and always seemed to show up when the lights got bright. He never turned into an NBA guy, but he turned himself into a franchise cornerstone in Europe, and 11 years later, he’s still winning.

Ira Brown — Rizing Zephyr Fukuoka (B.League, Japan)

Yes, this is real: Ira Brown is now a Japanese citizen. The man once known to Zag fans as the undersized power forward with trampoline bounce and linebacker strength is still hooping professionally at age 42—and doing it in Japan, where he lives full-time, speaks the language fluently, and proudly represents the country on the international stage.

Brown’s 2024–25 season with Rizing Zephyr Fukuoka has been yet another chapter in one of the most improbable, inspiring, and downright newsworthy Gonzaga alumni journeys out there. He’s appeared in 45 games this season, averaging 5.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in 22 minutes per night. These aren’t ceremonial minutes, either—Brown remains a productive contributor, giving his team real two-way minutes and veteran leadership. There are former NBA players five years younger who’ve been out of basketball for a decade. Ira’s still in the fight.

And it’s not just his age that’s notable, it’s the context. After leaving Gonzaga, Brown bounced around the globe—Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines—before finding his groove in Japan’s B.League. He fell in love with the country and committed to it completely, learning the language, settling in Okinawa, and undergoing a rigorous two-year naturalization process. He became a citizen in 2018 and quickly suited up for Japan’s national team at the FIBA Asia Challenge. In 2021, he repped the host nation at the Tokyo Olympics, playing in the inaugural 3×3 basketball event and playing alongside former Zag Rui Hachimura.

The Gonzaga duo of Rui Hachimura & Ira Brown were huge in Japan’s win over Iran. Rui Hachimura unleashed 25 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks on 10/16 2PT, 0/2 3PT, 5/8 FT, while Ira Brown had 6 pts, 8 reb, 1 block on 1/1 2PT, 1/1 3PT, 1/3 FT #ZagUp pic.twitter.com/Tz9xWEo4cq

— Gonzaga Zag Up ⬆️ Zags Guru (@GonzagaZagUp) September 17, 2018

Brown told NPR in 2021, “It’s an honor to be Japanese,” reflecting on his life path and the unlikely journey that took him from rural Texas to the Olympic stage. “Not in a million years,” he said, when asked if he ever imagined it. “Not in a million years.”

What a dude. What a life.

That’s a wrap on Part Three, and with it, our running update on 13 former Zags still hooping around the globe. We’ve seen EuroLeague stars, naturalized Olympians, national team anchors, guys still putting up numbers deep into their 30s—and then there’s Jeremy Pargo, who made a romantic comedy. A real one. About basketball and love. That actually exists. If nothing else, this series confirms that Gonzaga’s legacy doesn’t end at graduation. It mutates. It spreads. It gets stranger and more delightful by the year.