Funny story out Springfield, Massachusetts, via ESPN:
Williams, 23, had just been sent down to the NBA D-League’s Springfield (Mass.) Armor — punishment for being late to Nets practices, shootarounds and meetings — when he encountered Gonzalez, an Armor ballboy.
“I was nervous,” said Gonzalez, who approached Williams before his first game with the Armor. “But I just wanted to help him. I thought to myself, ‘Wow I’m actually meeting an NBA player, and I wanted to give him a heads up.’
“I told him, ‘You made a mistake and you shouldn’t feel like you’re down here because you’re not a good ballplayer. You need to learn from it.’ If I was him, I wouldn’t want to be down here. I’d do anything to stay in the NBA.'”
Williams gave his recollection of the conversation to the Newark Star-Ledger.
“I was like, ‘Do you watch the NBA?’ ” said Williams, who was called up Tuesday and played 26 minutes against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday. “He said, ‘Yeah, you’re one of the players I [like to] watch. Why would you blow it?’
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Why would you want to have an attitude, and be late — the simplest things you can control? And you get to be in the NBA? I would die to do that, so don’t blow it.’
“That’s a [13]-year-old telling me that,” Williams told the Star-Ledger, adding that his mother had called him in tears after his demotion, asking if he had been kicked out of the NBA. “So I think that and my mom crying was what really got to me. So down there, I decided to take everything serious, like I was here, as far as practicing and playing in a game.”
On one hand, it’s a shame that it took this demotion and these words from a 13-year-old to convince Williams to shape up. Players with his kind of talent often live in a bubble and don’t realize how a bad attitude is perceived by the regular joe, who would die to play in the NBA. The Nets are just asking him to be on time for his job, which is something that every single working person in this country has to do.
On the other hand, it’s nice that Williams didn’t brush the kid off or give him any attitude. He had a conversation with the ballboy and that conversation opened his eyes. Hopefully, he’s a changed man.
Williams rejoined the Nets on 12/9 and scored six points in 26 minutes on 3-of-8 shooting.
