kids encyclopedia robot

Jayson Williams facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Jayson Williams
Personal information
Born (1968-02-22) February 22, 1968 (age 56)
New York, New York, U.S.
High school Christ the King
(Queens, New York)
Listed height 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight 240 lb (109 kg)
Career information
College St. John's (1987–1990)
NBA Draft 1990 / Round: 1 / Pick: 21st overall
Selected by the Phoenix Suns
Pro career 1990–2000, 2005
Career history
1990–1992 Philadelphia 76ers
1992–2000 New Jersey Nets
2005 Idaho Stampede
Career highlights and awards
  • NBA All-Star (1998)
  • Second-team All-Big East (1989)
  • New York City Basketball Hall of Fame (Class of 2016)
Career NBA statistics
Points 3,472 (7.3 ppg)
Rebounds 3,584 (7.5 rpg)
Assists 287 (0.6 apg)

Jayson Williams (born February 22, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 11 seasons, primarily with the New Jersey Nets. He played his first three seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, who acquired him in trade with the Phoenix Suns following the 1990 NBA draft. Williams spent the remainder of his career with the Nets and was an All-Star in 1998. He was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.

Williams was charged in 2002 with the accidental shooting death of a limousine driver. He pled guilty to aggravated assault in 2010 and served a 27-month prison sentence.

Early life

Williams was born in Ritter, South Carolina, to Elijah Joshua "EJ" Williams and Barbara Williams. He is of Polish, Italian and African-American descent. His mother Barbara worked for years at Gouverneur skilled nursing facility in lower Manhattan. Raised Catholic, Williams moved to Brooklyn at the age of twelve and attended Christ The King Regional High School and St. John's University, both in New York City, and played on the basketball team at both.

Professional career

Williams was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the first round with the 21st pick of the 1990 NBA draft. His draft rights were thereafter traded by the Suns to the Philadelphia 76ers for a 1993 first-round draft choice on October 28, 1990. After two seasons as a bench player with the 76ers, Williams was traded to the New Jersey Nets for conditional draft choices on October 8, 1992.

While with the Nets, Williams only earned 12 starts in his first three seasons with the team before finally earning a full-time starting position in the 1996–97 season. The following season, on October 31, 1997, Williams set a franchise record with 17 offensive rebounds (20 total) in an opening night 97-95 win over the Indiana Pacers. That season, Williams had a career year, leading the league in offensive rebounds and offensive rebound percentage while also finishing the season in the top five in total rebounds, rebounds per game, total rebound percentage and offensive rating. Williams also received an All-Star game selection, playing in the 1998 NBA All-Star Game.

Injury and retirement

Williams' career came to a sudden end on April 1, 1999, after he broke his right leg in a collision with teammate Stephon Marbury in a game against the Atlanta Hawks. The following day, Williams underwent career-ending surgery in which a plate and five screws were inserted into his leg. After sitting out the entire 1999–2000 season, Williams officially announced his retirement on June 28, 2000, at the age of 32 after 11 seasons. At the time of the injury, Williams was in the first year of a six-year, $90 million contract. In 2005, he briefly came out of retirement to play for the Idaho Stampede of the Continental Basketball Association.

Indoor lacrosse

Williams was the principal owner of the New Jersey Storm of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The franchise operated for two seasons, 2002 and 2003, before moving to Anaheim, California, and becoming the Anaheim Storm. Due to consistently poor results, as well as its presence in tough markets, the Storm failed to make much of an impression and it became defunct before the start of the 2006 season.

Books

In 2001, Williams authored a book about basketball entitled Loose Balls. The book, intended largely to be a humorous recollection of Williams's life in the NBA, was later cited as containing nine separate anecdotes involving his tendency to play with guns, including one where football player Wayne Chrebet is nearly shot and one where the uncle of Manute Bol is threatened with an unloaded handgun.

In 2012, Williams published a second book, an autobiography entitled Humbled ~ Letters From Prison. The book includes revelations about being abused as a child.

A third book, Crashing: A Memoir, was published in December 2018.

Personal life

In 1996, Williams proposed during halftime of a nationally televised basketball game to model Cynthia Bailey. The two later parted.

Williams married Kellie Batiste in December 1999; they divorced soon afterward. In 2000, he married Tanya Young and together they had two daughters. The couple divorced in 2011. Young was a cast member of VH1's reality TV show Basketball Wives: LA.

Williams' father, Elijah Joshua Williams, died of a stroke at the age of 76 in November 2009. .....

Legacy

In 2022, St. John's University announced intentions to induct Williams into their athletics Hall of Fame.

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1990–91 Philadelphia 52 1 9.8 .447 .500 .661 2.1 .3 .2 .1 3.5
1991–92 Philadelphia 50 8 12.9 .364 .636 2.9 .2 .4 .4 4.1
1992–93 New Jersey 12 2 11.6 .457 .389 3.4 .0 .3 .3 4.1
1993–94 New Jersey 70 0 12.5 .427 .605 3.8 .4 .2 .5 4.6
1994–95 New Jersey 75 6 13.1 .461 .000 .533 5.7 .5 .3 .4 4.8
1995–96 New Jersey 80 6 23.2 .423 .286 .592 10.0 .6 .4 .7 9.0
1996–97 New Jersey 41 40 34.9 .409 .000 .590 13.5 1.2 .6 .9 13.4
1997–98 New Jersey 65 65 36.0 .498 .000 .666 13.6 1.0 .7 .8 12.9
1998–99 New Jersey 30 30 34.0 .445 .000 .565 12.0 1.1 .8 2.0 8.1
Career 475 158 20.6 .440 .125 .606 7.5 .6 .4 .6 7.3
All-Star 1 0 19.0 .667 10.0 1.0 .0 .0 4.0

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1991 Philadelphia 4 0 2.5 .800 1.0 .0 .0 .0 2.0
1994 New Jersey 2 0 8.5 .000 .500 1.5 .0 .0 .0 .5
1998 New Jersey 3 2 38.7 .429 .500 14.0 1.7 .7 1.0 7.0
Career 9 2 15.9 .448 .500 5.4 .6 .2 .3 3.3

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Jayson Williams para niños Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Jayson Williams para niños

kids search engine
Jayson Williams Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.