Jayson Williams (born February 22, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) for 11 seasons, primarily with the

New Jersey Nets New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. He played his first three seasons with the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eas ...

, who acquired him in trade with the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

following the 1990 NBA draft. Williams spent the remainder of his career with the Nets and was an All-Star in 1998. Following his retirement, Williams was charged in 2002 with the accidental shooting death of a limousine driver. He pled guilty to

aggravated assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

in 2010 and served a 27-month prison sentence.

Early life

Williams was born in Ritter,

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, to Elijah Joshua "EJ" Williams and Barbara Williams. He is of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

descent. His mother Barbara worked for years at Gouverneur skilled nursing facility in lower Manhattan. Raised

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, Williams moved to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

at the age of twelve and attended

Christ The King Regional High School Christ the King Regional High School is a co-educational, college preparatory, Catholic high school for grades 9-12 located in Middle Village, Queens, New York, United States and established in 1962. It is located within the Roman Catholic Dioces ...

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

in the first round with the 21st pick of the 1990 NBA draft. His draft rights were thereafter traded by the Suns to the

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

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 The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first esta ...

. That

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, 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 The 1998 NBA All-Star Game was the 48th edition of the National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game. The event was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The East won the game 135–114. Besides the NBA All-Star game, there were t ...

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 Stephon Xavier Marbury (born February 20, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player and current head coach in the Chinese Basketball Association. After his freshman year with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, he was selected as th ...

in a game against the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Sou ...

. 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 Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

of the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball m ...

Legal incidents

In 1992, Williams was accused of breaking a beer mug over a patron's head at a saloon in Chicago. Two years later, he was accused of firing a semiautomatic weapon into the parking lot at the

Meadowlands Sports Complex The Meadowlands Sports Complex is a sports complex located in East Rutherford, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The facility is owned and operated by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA). The complex currently consi ...

. He was never criminally charged in either case.

Assault conviction

On February 14, 2002, 55-year-old

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a prof ...

driver Costas "Gus" Christofi was shot and killed at Williams's estate in

Alexandria Township, New Jersey Alexandria Township is a township in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 4,938, reflecting an increase of 240 (+5.1%) from the 4,698 counted in the 2000 Census, which h ...

. Christofi had been hired to drive Williams's NBA charity team from a

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19, ...

, event to his mansion, about northwest of

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

. He was convicted on four counts of trying to cover up the shooting. On April 21, 2006, a

Hunterdon County Hunterdon County is a county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 128,947, making it the state's 18th-most populous county,manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

charge stemming from the shooting death of Christofi. The court repeatedly delayed the retrial for a series of reasons, such as the State's 2008 appeal of a ruling relating to prosecutorial misconduct at the first trial. On January 11, 2010, Williams pleaded guilty to

. On February 23, 2010, he was finally sentenced to 5 years in prison with possible parole after 18 months. Williams was subsequently moved on April 19, 2011, to

Rikers Island Rikers Island is a island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that contains New York City's main jail complex. Named after Abraham Rycken, who took possession of the island in 1664, the island was originally under in size, but has ...

to serve an additional 1-year sentence for a DWI, of which he served 8 months and was released from custody on April 13, 2012. On the entire experience, Williams said in a 2012 interview with

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

: "…I truly don't want to see anybody cause any more pain to anybody. And I don't want to see anybody in a cage, man. Everybody thinks they're so tough and they can go to jail. I've never seen a newbie go to jail and not cry the first two months every night, scream and have to get suicide prevention in front of his cell." Relating specifically to the shooting incident, Williams went on to say "I struggle with the loss of lives. The loss of Mr. Christofi and the loss of my father. An hour doesn't go by that I don't think about he accident think about how can I replay this as to bring back Mr. Christofi. And not one person died that night, two people died. My dad had never been in the hospital in 70 years. That's the ripple effect."

Tasering incident

The

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

(NYPD) reported on April 27, 2009, that Williams was stunned with a

taser A taser is an electroshock weapon used to incapacitate people, allowing them to be approached and handled in an unresisting and thus safe manner. It is sold by Axon, formerly TASER International. It fires two small barbed darts intended to ...

in a New York City hotel by members of the NYPD after reports that Williams had become suicidal and violent. Upon entering the

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

hotel room police said that Williams was visibly intoxicated, and that empty bottles of prescription medications were found around the room. Officers stunned him with the taser and took him to a hospital.

Raleigh bar fight

Williams was arrested on May 24, 2009, for allegedly punching a man in the face at a bar in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

. He was charged with simple assault. Later the charges were dropped.

DWI incident

On January 5, 2010, Williams was charged with driving while intoxicated after an early morning accident in lower

, in which he crashed his Mercedes into a tree. On August 20, 2010, he was sentenced to an additional year in prison, to be added on to the five-year prison sentence for the shooting death of a limousine driver. He additionally received a $16,433 fine for the damage to the tree. Williams was released from prison in April 2012.

Indoor lacrosse

Williams was the principal owner of the

New Jersey Storm The New Jersey Storm were a member of the National Lacrosse League, based in East Rutherford, New Jersey. They played from 2002 to 2003 playing at the then Continental Airlines Arena. The team was an expansion team that was purchased for by an ...

of the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

(NLL). The franchise operated for two seasons,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, before moving to

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

, and becoming the

Anaheim Storm The Anaheim Storm was a member of the National Lacrosse League. They played at the Arrowhead Pond, now the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California. They were the New Jersey Storm from the 2002 season to 2003. Starting for the 2004 season the tea ...

. 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 Wayne Chrebet (born August 14, 1973) is a former American football wide receiver who played 11 seasons for the New York Jets of the National Football League from 1995 to 2005. High school and college career Chrebet grew up in Garfield, New J ...

is nearly shot and one where the uncle of

Manute Bol Manute Bol (; October 16, 1962 – June 19, 2010) was a Sudanese-American professional basketball player and political activist. Listed at or tall, Bol was tied with Gheorghe Mureșan as the tallest player in the history of the National Bask ...

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 Cynthia Denise Bailey (born February 19, 1967) is an American model, reality television personality, and actress. Born and raised in Alabama, she moved to New York City at the age of 18 to pursue a modeling career. There, she signed a five-year ...

. 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 aged 76 in November 2009. All 3 of his sisters died tragically. Two from AIDS (one after a blood transfusion following a mugging), and another was killed by her husband in a murder-suicide.

Legacy

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

NBA career statistics

Regular season

, - , style="text-align:left;", 1990–91 , style="text-align:left;",

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, 52 , , 1 , , 9.8 , , .447 , , .500 , , .661 , , 2.1 , , .3 , , .2 , , .1 , , 3.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1991–92 , style="text-align:left;",

, 50 , , 8 , , 12.9 , , .364 , , , , .636 , , 2.9 , , .2 , , .4 , , .4 , , 4.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1992–93 , style="text-align:left;",

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, 12 , , 2 , , 11.6 , , .457 , , , , .389 , , 3.4 , , .0 , , .3 , , .3 , , 4.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1993–94 , style="text-align:left;",

, 70 , , 0 , , 12.5 , , .427 , , , , .605 , , 3.8 , , .4 , , .2 , , .5 , , 4.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1994–95 , style="text-align:left;",

, 75 , , 6 , , 13.1 , , .461 , , .000 , , .533 , , 5.7 , , .5 , , .3 , , .4 , , 4.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1995–96 , style="text-align:left;",

, 80 , , 6 , , 23.2 , , .423 , , .286 , , .592 , , 10.0 , , .6 , , .4 , , .7 , , 9.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1996–97 , style="text-align:left;",

, 41 , , 40 , , 34.9 , , .409 , , .000 , , .590 , , 13.5 , , 1.2 , , .6 , , .9 , , 13.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1997–98 , style="text-align:left;",

, 65 , , 65 , , 36.0 , , .498 , , .000 , , .666 , , 13.6 , , 1.0 , , .7 , , .8 , , 12.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1998–99 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 30 , , 34.0 , , .445 , , .000 , , .565 , , 12.0 , , 1.1 , , .8 , , 2.0 , , 8.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 475 , , 158 , , 20.6 , , .440 , , .125 , , .606 , , 7.5 , , .6 , , .4 , , .6 , , 7.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", All-Star , 1 , , 0 , , 19.0 , , .667 , , , , , , 10.0 , , 1.0 , , .0 , , .0 , , 4.0

Playoffs

, - , style="text-align:left;",

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, style="text-align:left;",

, 4 , , 0 , , 2.5 , , .800 , , , , , , 1.0 , , .0 , , .0 , , .0 , , 2.0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 2 , , 0 , , 8.5 , , .000 , , , , .500 , , 1.5 , , .0 , , .0 , , .0 , , .5 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 3 , , 2 , , 38.7 , , .429 , , , , .500 , , 14.0 , , 1.7 , , .7 , , 1.0 , , 7.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 9 , , 2 , , 15.9 , , .448 , , , , .500 , , 5.4 , , .6 , , .2 , , .3 , , 3.3

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Jayson 1968 births Living people 21st-century American criminals 21st-century American non-fiction writers African-American basketball players African-American non-fiction writers American autobiographers American male non-fiction writers American men's basketball players American people convicted of assault American people of Polish descent American prisoners and detainees American sportspeople convicted of crimes American writers of Italian descent Basketball players from South Carolina Centers (basketball) Criminals from New Jersey Idaho Stampede (CBA) players National Basketball Association All-Stars National Basketball Association broadcasters New Jersey Nets players People from Alexandria Township, New Jersey People from Colleton County, South Carolina Philadelphia 76ers players Phoenix Suns draft picks Power forwards (basketball) Prisoners and detainees of New Jersey St. John's Red Storm men's basketball players Writers from New Jersey 21st-century American male writers 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American sportspeople African-American Catholics

Early life

Professional career

Injury and retirement

Legal incidents

Assault conviction

Tasering incident

Raleigh bar fight

DWI incident

Indoor lacrosse

Books

Personal life

Legacy

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

References

Further reading

External links