Teams are interested in Jay Williams

[TheMatrix31]

Re: Teams are interested in Jay Williams

I would LOVE to have Phoenix pick him up. Please.

[BunnyHardaway]

Re: Teams are interested in Jay Williams

Sad thing is which one? FSU in Talley, or IU in the Sweet 16?

Shhhhhhh, thou shalt not remind me of times of pain and suffering

[23]

Re: Teams are interested in Jay Williams

Williams says he’s ready for NBA again

By Mike McGraw
Daily Herald Sports Writer
Posted Friday, July 22, 2005

Jay Williams spent nearly two full years rehabilitating the injuries he sustained in a June 2003 motorcycle accident.

When it finally came time to decide whether his dream of returning to the NBA was realistic, Williams needed some convincing.

Tim Grover, personal trainer of NBA stars, did not.

In April, Grover estimated that he spent five minutes putting Williams through simple drills at Hoops the Gym on Chicago’s West Side before coming to a conclusion.

“I put him through a five-minute workout,” Grover said. “I walked over to Jay and said, ‘I know we can do this.’

“We would not spend this much time and effort, waste his time and our time if we did not think it was possible. He will be in a training camp in October and he will be on a team’s roster. No doubt in my mind.”

Williams invited several media members to watch a brief individual workout Thursday morning. With no competition on the court, it was difficult to estimate his chances of becoming a viable NBA player this season.

At times, he moved well. On other occasions, he appeared to be dragging his badly damaged left leg. The good news is the limp he still carried a few months ago is gone.

The ball slipped out of Williams’ hands a few times, making him look like a decent player whose NBA dreams are far-fetched. But late in the session, the 6-foot-1 guard knocked down an impressive 10 of 11 attempts from beyond the 3-point line, then buried 5 in a row from long range while pulling up from the top of the key.

“I feel like my body is getting really, really close to where it was when I last played,” Williams said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same, fast explosive player I was before, trying to dunk on Yao Ming and things like that. Just shooting a lot more layups and a lot more floaters, but 2 points are 2 points.”

If Williams is ready to go when NBA training camps begin in October — and he swears he will be ready — the next question is whether he will return to the Bulls, the team that made him the No. 2 pick of the 2002 NBA draft.

When the Bulls negotiated a $3 million contract buyout a few months following the accident, Williams vowed to give the Bulls right of first refusal if and when he ever attempted a comeback. His agent, Kevin Bradbury, insisted that promise still stands.

Asked if he sees himself going to camp with the Bulls, Williams prefaced his answer with a sigh, knowing the Bulls have a backcourt crowded with small guards.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Honestly, guys, I would love to play here. Since I’ve been 11 years old, it’s been my dream to be in this city. But their situation right now with Ben Gordon, Kirk (Hinrich), Chris (Duhon) and (Jannero) Pargo, I just don’t know if it’s going to work out.

“Hopefully, it can be here, but if not, that’s just what I’ve got to do.”

Duhon, Williams’ former Duke teammate, is a restricted free agent, but there is virtually no chance the Bulls will let him join another team. Not after the Bulls posted a 47-26 record when Duhon was the starting point guard.

It’s possible that Bulls general manager John Paxson will have to decide whether to hang on to Pargo, a role player popular with his teammates, or take a chance that Williams can approach his past standard. Either way, Paxson hasn’t forgotten about Williams.

“I’d love to take a look at him,” Paxson said. “I wish him the best.”

Reflecting on the past two years, Williams talked about how frustrating it was to be the recipient of constant sympathy from well-meaning fans.

“I look at them and say, ‘You don’t have to feel bad for me,’æ” he said. “First of all, I’m still living. There was a big chance I could have lost my life. It’s just gravy on the side that I’m getting a chance to get back and play the game I love.”

If someone wants to say Williams was stupid for throwing away a promising basketball career by riding recklessly on a high-performance motorcycle, he won’t accept that either.

“I’m sure everybody here has had a time where you get out of a situation and you’re like, ‘Whew, I’m glad that didn’t turn out this way or that way,’æ” he said. “Everybody makes mistakes. It happened to me.

“But you know what? I wouldn’t change that for the world. People can call me an idiot all they want, but I’m glad it happened to me, because it’s humbled me as a person and it’s really made me pay attention to the people important to me in my life.

“I don’t think I was a bad person three years ago. I just think I got a little too caught up in the typical basketball life of just doing all the crazy stuff and I didn’t appreciate some of the things that God has given to me, like my family and friends. I think now when I come back, I’ll be a lot more levelheaded and understand what I have to do.”

Williams typically endures two physical therapy sessions and two basketball workouts a day. Grover suggested there are two more steps before the former college player of the year is ready to return.

The first is playing full-court games against NBA players. Juwan Howard, Bobby Simmons and Kwame Brown were hanging out at Hoops on Thursday, but Grover doesn’t expect the pickup games to get rolling until Aug. 1.

The other challenge is defending an NBA screen-and-roll. Williams acknowledged that he probably will lose some quickness because of his injuries. Then again, if speed was paramount to being a successful NBA guard, Mark Jackson wouldn’t have played 17 seasons and rank No. 2 all time in assists.

“You don’t have to be amazingly fast to play in this league,” Williams said. “The guys who last in this league are the guys who are smart, run their team and get things done. I know one thing I’ve always been great at doing is finding a way to get it done.”