Before introducing Jason Williams, let's tell two little stories about him.
On Jan. 24, 1996, during the Nets' game against the Rockets, Jason grabbed 13 rebounds, including six in the frontcourt, and after the game, Olajuwon told others: "That No. 55 is fierce, he has the potential to improve." So someone told Jason, "Jason, 'Big Dream' doesn't even know your name." A few months later, the two teams played again, jason played fiercely, with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and after a successful dunk in front of Olajuwon, he asked out loud: "Do you know what my name is?" "Of course, Jason Williams."
Jason in high school was a Lakers fan. Once, the Lakers warmed up in his school gym, but lakers coach Riley didn't let these high school players into the gym. As a result, Jason could only stand outside the door with his classmates. When "Magic" Johnson walked out of the arena, Jason rushed up to ask for an autograph, but was refused. From that day on, Jason threw away the "Magician" jersey and wore the "Dr. J" jersey instead. When Jason played against the Lakers for the first time since entering the NBA, he was very fierce with the "Magician", knocking him down several times in a row. The result? Jason got the "Magic" signature jersey, and he became a Johnson fan again.
Do you know a little bit? Jason Williams is so real and cute.
Jason Williams was born on February 22, 1968, to a white mother and a black father. Growing up in New York, Jason loved to fight since he was a child, and his childhood friends were the descendants of immigrants, mostly Italian immigrants, usually named Sal, Vinnie, frank — the "New York Mafia Crime Family" in the newspapers at that time was the father of these people. These guys have always had a good relationship with Jason, they all have their own careers and circles, they'll sit on the sidelines and watch Jason play, but it never bothers him.
Growing up on the streets of New York made Jason very physically strong, which made him invincible on the basketball court. In 1987, Jason entered St. John's University in New York, a Catholic university with an international reputation, but the basketball tradition was not particularly good. Jason quickly became the main player in the varsity team with a tough style of play, and in his second year at the school, in the 1988-89 season, he averaged 19.5 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. If he continues like this, he will at least become a rookie in the top ten of the NBA draft first round, but because of too much effort, Jason was injured in his junior year, played only 13 games, and averaged 14.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, which directly affected his draft pick.
Jason didn't hear his name until 21st in the first round at the 1990 draft, when he was drafted by the Phoenix Suns but was sent to Philadelphia before he made it. There was Charles Buckley.
At this time, the 76ers are still a strong team, and the inside strength is particularly strong, in addition to Barkley, there are Amen Gilliam, Rick Mahon and NBA first longman Manute Pol. In this case, jason, 22, has no choice but to sit on the bench. In the rookie season, Jason, in addition to being a "little brother" to Barkley, only averaged 9.8 minutes of playing time per game, but the data was not bad, with 3.5 points and 2.1 rebounds.
What Jason remembers most clearly is that every time he trained for endurance running, Barkley was always pedaling while pedaling, and he was stuffing beef pie in his mouth while constantly shouting at his teammates: "You dog girls, give me a hard run." ”
At this time, Jason was immature in all aspects, shooting only 44.7% from the field, which is a bit of a low for an inside player. Jason suffered a big loss in the first game against the Celtics, and in the face of the elderly Larry Bird, Barkley could not do anything, and Gilliam, who was replaced, could not play any role, so Jason stood up and said to coach Linham: "Coach, how can this old white man slaughter us?" I'm going to fix him! Larry Bird's first words to him were, "Hello, rookie." "Then shoot a three-pointer with your open hand." , it's too careless, I'll never let him score again. Jason rushed up...
In the space of 6 minutes, Bird scored 14 points on Jason's head, "I don't want to play, I just want to play with him!" An angry Jason thought, of course, that the game made him realize his gap.
In the second season, Jason's playing time improved slightly, and his average per game increased a little, and in order to become a full-fledged interior player, he began to try to shoot more. In November 1991, the 76ers against the Cavaliers, Jason grabbed six frontcourt rebounds in 19 minutes of playing time, but only hit 3 of 11 shots; two months later against the Pacers, he grabbed 11 rebounds in 20 minutes, but only 3 of 13 shots... Throughout the 1991-92 season, Jason shot just 36.4 percent from the field, and he shot every three minutes. The intolerable 76ers had to send him away on the grounds that the player had no offensive talent.
Jason, who had only played two seasons, had to go to the second and last team of his career, the New Jersey Nets.
Jason's first two seasons with the Nets were no different from Philadelphia's: averaging less than 13 minutes of playing time per game, inside benches, no improved shooting percentage and somewhat increased rebounds... Every game night, Jason engages in close-quarters hand-to-hand combat with his opponents for a limited time, and his experience and understanding of basketball is growing day by day.
The 1994–95 season was a season of re-acquaintance with Jason. Jason still averaged just 13.1 minutes per game this season, but his rebounds went up to 5.7, and if he increased his playing time to 36 minutes, he would have 15.6 rebounds, a number that would have terrorized Dennis Rodman.
The following 1995-96 season, the Nets began trying to give Jason some more playing time, of course, the team's starting point was still the 2.29m tall "bamboo pole" Sean Bradley. In this season, Jason grabbed 10 rebounds in less than 24 minutes of playing time, including 4.3 rebounds in front of the court, in addition to which he also scored 9 points. More and more opponents are starting to find the 2.08-meter center difficult to deal with: on December 20, 1995, against the Heat, he scored 19 points and 20 rebounds, including 12 frontcourt rebounds; on January 13, 1996, against the Pistons, he scored 12 points, 24 rebounds, including nine frontcourt rebounds; on January 30, 1996, against the Supersonics, against Sean Kemp, he again played 13 points and 25 rebounds. There were 10 frontcourt rebounds... There's nothing to stop him from being the team's starter.
Jason's rise to prominence is thanks to the Nets' assistant coach Paul Silas. At that time, the Nets had a lot of famous "court black holes", such as Derek Coleman, Gilliam, Kenny Anderson, etc., and the ball would basically not come out of their hands. So in every game Jason Williams gets very few opportunities to perform other than to cover them. One day, Silas called him aside and said, "Jason, you know Derek and Kenny they're not going to pass to you because they're both All-Stars. What you have to do is to grab the offensive opportunity yourself - fight for the rebound in the frontcourt! They don't shoot very well, but 40%, which means that for every 10 shots they shoot, 6 balls pop up, and you're going to do what I've done for the rest of my life. ”
So Jason tried to focus on rebounding, he was smart, physically good, and since then, the NBA seems to have had an extra rebounding master overnight.
In the 1996–97 season, Jason's playing time increased to 34.9 minutes, and although he played only 41 games due to injury, he won more starts (40 games) than in the previous six seasons combined. The increase in playing time has also led to a significant increase in Jason's stats, and he has averaged 13.4 points and 13.5 rebounds per game, including 5.9 rebounds in the frontcourt. Although Rodman is still the league's rebounding king, Jason has made him feel a huge threat.
Of course, Jason is not the kind of short-lived "outburst", and like Rodman, he is also a smart interior player. After retiring, Jason talked about his "rebounding secrets."
"When my teammates shoot, I'm generally farther away from the rebound and the opponent's position seems to be more advantageous, which is actually a trick I learned when watching the New York Giants' football star Taylor move. Keeping a certain distance from your opponent gives you room to move, because the closer you get, the easier it is for him to entangle you. I'm in very good physical condition and move and turn faster than most of the players I have to defend. When the ball eye can't shoot, I will move to the left and right sides, forcing the opponent to move with me, and then at the moment when the ball is about to hit the rebound or basket, I start to rush forward, with my good judgment of time and space, to grab the basketball in the air in the first time. A lot of people don't grab rebounds like I do because this method is particularly physically demanding. ”
As a technical rebounder, Jason Williams continued to be in good shape in the 1997–98 season. He grabbed 26 rebounds against the Cavaliers in November 1997, 18 rebounds two days later in Detroit; he grabbed 24 rebounds against the Supersonics in December, followed by a back-to-back "double 22"; he grabbed 23 rebounds on Mutombo's head; grabbed 18 rebounds against the Spurs' "Twin Towers"; "Big Dreams" and Barkley 19 rebounds against the Rockets; 23 rebounds against rodman against the Bulls... At that time, Jason gave people the feeling of a terrifying "rebounding machine", and everyone was talking: "Will Dennis Rodman's rebounding king for six years be out of danger?" ”
This season, Jason competed in the All-Star Game, which was also the culmination of his career. In 65 games, Jason has grabbed 443 rebounds in frontcourt, after only Moses Malone and Dennis Rodman had done.
The crazy performance led Jason to a seven-year, $86 million contract in the summer of 1998, when he was only 30 years old, at the peak. Michael Jordan even asked him alone to join the Bulls.
But this summer, the NBA broke out in labor disputes, until January 1999, the labor and management sides were still entangled in a small matter, and the regular season had been delayed for two months. Jason stepped forward and told the truth that many people did not dare to tell, saying that most of the players wanted to come back and play, "Maybe the players should have a vote on whether to accept the proposal from the capital.".
As a result, almost all people called him a "traitor", Spike Lee attacked him on TV, and many players thought he was unreasonable. But the verbal abuse did not last long, and three days later the players' union organized a vote. Jason Williams became a prominent figure, and of course, there were people who wanted to go against him, so in the days in New York, Shaquille O'Neal, Oakley and Anthony Mason took the initiative to serve as his bodyguards. The players didn't have a good relationship with Jason, even "enemies", but at this point they stood together because Jason said what they couldn't say.
Finally, the players' union announced the result of the vote: accepting the proposal from the management. They have not published the number of votes — 216-4 votes. Jason Weil williams has thus become the most popular player in the NBA.
But the good times didn't last long, and Jason only fulfilled one year of his seven-year contract. Jason injured his knee during this shrinking season, the year he was named to the "Team of the Year's Best Interviewee," and The New Jersey reporters who had been infected by his smile were invariably hurt by the departure of the "pistachio." He returned to his house, lived for a while, and then, in 2000, he began working as a narrator for NBC.
From playing in the NBA until February 14, 2002, Jason Williams was a good player, a good man, an avid philanthropist, adopted the children of two older sisters, and declared himself the youngest grandfather in the league. But the famous gunshot almost completely ruined it all, and of course, the driver named Christopher.
Dennis Rodman once sat in his car with a shotgun in his arms and wondered if he wanted to shoot himself that way. Jason Williams is very much like Rodman, he seems to be only one finger worse than the "big bug" in terms of rebounding, and in the car, he is one finger behind the latter.
Fate didn't give Jason Williams much favor. He experienced the injustice and dark side of fate very early on. So it's hard to tell what his true attitude towards life really is: is it inspirational storytelling that gets more and more courageous, or does it use heroism and hustle and bustle to resist loneliness and hurt? So when he is finally acquitted, it is difficult to guess how he really feels: whether he is glad that his life has been extended, whether he has foreseen such an outcome, or...