In the draft thread I noted that there are a lot of questions about Sean Williams. I was challenged to document this, so here goes:
http://www.boston.com/sports/colleg..._bc_star_williams_thrives_in_transition_game/
http://www.boston.com/sports/colleg..._bc_star_williams_thrives_in_transition_game/
Ex-BC star Williams thrives in transition game
By Peter May, Globe Staff | June 25, 2007
HOUSTON -- Well before the workout is to begin on a typically clammy June day, Sean Williams strolls into Fox Gymnasium on the campus of Rice University, unrecognized by the scores of high schoolers participating in a basketball camp. Williams removes himself to a corner of the gym and does some stretching exercises.
The high schoolers eventually filter out. The pro scouts -- seven teams are represented -- filter in.
Then, the 6-foot- 10-inch Williams takes the floor as John Lucas takes the ball, set to begin the hour long workout. But before the first ball is thrown, or the first shot taken, or the first foot moved, Williams says to the gathered masses, "How y'all doing? My name is Sean Williams." He then shakes the hand of everyone in attendance with the exception of one person -- his mother, Audry. She gets a kiss.
Is this the Sean Williams that, next year, will be playing in the NBA? The polite, accommodating, serious, committed, mature Sean Williams? That is what is going to happen, he promises. All the history is, well, history. The marijuana arrest? The stint in drug rehab? The suspensions (as in, more than one) from the Boston College team? The dismissal from the team last January? He knows he messed up, big time. How could he not?
"I definitely let my coaches down, my teammates down, and the fans down," he says after the workout. "I thank Boston College for supporting me. They had my back the entire time. This is a new opportunity. I made some bad decisions. I've learned from those mistakes and become a better person from them."
The $64,000 question among NBA overseers is, well, has he really learned? He didn't make just one bad decision. He made a series of them. He was suspended twice before coach Al Skinner booted him off the team for good Jan. 17, a day after he had scored 10 points, collected six rebounds, and blocked three shots in only 23 minutes of an 82-63 win over Miami. That will cost him both in reputation and dollars, for, as Williams acknowledges, "I knew I would drop [in the draft] after I got kicked off the team."
Danny Ainge, the Celtics' executive director of basketball operations, is far from alone in weighing the talent/potential issue against the behavior issue.
"I think it weighs a lot with everybody because you have concerns," Ainge says. "You have concerns any time a player gets kicked off his college basketball team and has as many problems as he had in his college program. Not every one of those guys gets better and grows up and learns from those mistakes. Some do."
Drug issue
Williams won't discuss the particulars of the so-called Final Straw decision by Skinner, nor will the coach. Williams did say he has been up front with any NBA team that asks -- and they all do.
"The first thing they ask me is, 'What happened at BC?' I just try to give them the rundown and be as honest as possible. I made some mistakes," he says.
Lucas, who makes a living working with players like Williams, was much more forthcoming. He has been handling Williams on a daily basis for the last two months and feels he has a good handle on the 20-year-old.
"Sean doesn't have any real-life issues," Lucas says. "There are other guys I've had here who have had real-life issues. He doesn't. His issue is, he just wants to smoke some weed sometime -- and you can't. We're learning how to handle life issues without smoking weed to medicate. I would venture to say, he hasn't smoked any more weed than a lot of the other guys who are going to get drafted. The difference is, he got caught. Now, the question is, do you have an addiction? That's another issue. If it's worth it to you, if you have to have it, then you have an addiction, because look at what you've lost. If it's not worth it to you, then we're on our way. And I think he's more than on his way."
Does he worry about Williams?
"He worries me from the standpoint that he's going to get a speeding ticket or a ticket for running a red light," Lucas says. "That's it."
One of the things Williams also did at BC was stay on campus after Skinner dismissed him from the team. Given the situation and what lay ahead, who would have been surprised had Williams returned to Texas and started working out, preparing for the draft? He didn't. Skinner gives Williams high marks for that decision.
"Most people would have done that," says Skinner. "He not only stayed and finished, he did well. And he was never a distraction to the program. In my opinion, that was a tremendous accomplishment."
Williams was asked how hard it was to stay on campus after what had happened.
"It was definitely difficult," he says. "It was a daily struggle, but it was something I felt I had to go through to get over some things."
Over the last two months, Williams has become "a 9 to 5" guy in Houston working with Lucas. The day begins and ends in the gym, with Lucas running the drills. There is time set out in the middle of the day for weightlifting and drug counseling. As the draft approached, Williams's agent, Charles Grantham, the former head of the NBA Players Association, arranged the workouts in Houston. There also is a chance Williams may take his act on the road to both coasts before David Stern calls his name Thursday night
And, make no mistake, it will be Stern -- who handles the first-round duties -- who will make the call. Houston general manager Daryl Morey was at the workout at Rice. The Rockets are picking 26th and Morey shrugged, saying, "We don't expect him to be available."
On talent alone, Williams should be a lottery pick and, Skinner says, "had he finished the season for me, he'd be a top six pick, easy. He's a unique talent."
Difference-maker
There may be no one in this draft who can change a game defensively like Williams can. He had a game against Providence in which he blocked 12 shots, another game against Duquesne in which he blocked 13. He left Kansas coach Bill Self slobbering all over him after Williams registered 19 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 blocks against the Jayhawks. For his abbreviated season (15 games), he averaged 12.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots. As a freshman, he set a school record for blocked shots, a record he proceeded to break while playing 12 games fewer in his junior year.
Offensively, he's still a work in progress. He has a Chris Webber-like release on his perimeter shot and can go to the basket with either hand, as he did against 7-3 Ionut Dragusin during the workout. Lucas had him finish the workout by coming out of a hallway at the end corner of the court, making one dribble, and dunking the ball. It took Williams two runs to do it. A disgusted Lucas kicked the ball off the gym wall after Williams missed it the first time.
"He can't let up like that. It can come so easy to him that he sometimes gets bored with life," Lucas says. "You want to make it fair for everyone else, so you end up making it harder for yourself.
"But there aren't many bigs who can do what he does. Athletically, he's probably near the top of the charts. He should be in the lottery. Much past 13, well, that's a very safe pick. Even higher. I told Danny Ainge when he was here that he would be the perfect guy for Boston, if there weren't the issues."
But? "It's perception," Lucas continues. "It's like I told my son, John. 'You're 5-10. You will not get drafted. But you'll be in the league.' "
John Lucas III ended up with the Houston Rockets in 2005 after a college career at Oklahoma State. He has spent two seasons with the team as a reserve. His dad was right. He did make it.
The question with Williams isn't whether he'll get drafted or even where he'll get drafted.
He will wake up Friday morning with a guaranteed two-year contract worth a lot of money. The question in a lot of people's minds is which team is going to be signing the checks and is that team going to get the next Ben Wallace -- or the next Keon Clark?
"You hope he will turn it around," Skinner says. "I'm hoping he's figured it out. While he was here, he never missed a practice. He never was late. But, left to his own resources and out of my reach, he made some immature decisions. And because of who he is, it got noticed. I told him, 'You haven't learned how to handle yourself in this environment.' But if he can handle himself in a new environment, it can be rewarding for him financially and satisfying for him from a personal standpoint."
