ACB Team

Derek Needham began his basketball career at De La Salle High School (Illinois), and later played at Fairfield University (Fairfield Stags) from 2009 to 2013. In his final college season, he averaged 14.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3 assists per game in 32.4 minutes on average, with 78.3% free throws and 39.6% field goal shooting.

After his college days, he began his professional career in Europe, where he has played for several teams: Šiauliai (Lithuania), Khimik Yuzhny (Ukraine), Braunschweig (Germany), Reggio Emilia (Italy), Mornar-Barsko Zlato (Montenegro), AS Monaco (France), Rytas Vilnius
(Lithuania), Bursaspor (Turkey) and Besiktas S.J. (Turkey).

Needham also has experience in European competitions. With Mornar-Barsko Zlato he played in the Basketball Champions League (qualifying phase) and the FIBA Europe Cup during the 2017/18 and 2019/20 seasons, as well as the Eurocup in the 2020/21 season. With AS Monaco he participated in the Eurocup in the 2018/19 season, and with Bursaspor he played two seasons in the Eurocup (2021/22 and 2022/23); in the first, the team reached the final, which they lost to Virtus Bologna. With Beşiktaş S.J. he also played in this competition the last two seasons: in the first they reached the semifinals, and in the second they were eliminated in the round of 16.