Sylvester Williams (born January 26, 1958) is a retired American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. Born in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

. In 1979 he was drafted 21st overall by the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

and he played parts of seven seasons 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) with the New York Knicks,

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 ...

and

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

, appearing in 305 regular season games and seven in the playoffs. In 1985 he signed for the Celtics, but was released on December 2 after a number of personal issues. The Celtics went on to win the

1986 NBA Finals The 1986 NBA Finals was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1985–86 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. It pitted the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics against the Western Confere ...

in his absence. As a member of the Knicks, Williams was the last player to wear No. 33 before

Patrick Ewing Patrick Aloysius Ewing (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-American basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Georgetown University men's team. He played most of his career as the starting center for the New ...

. Williams was highly recruited as an All American out of Lee High School in

He averaged 31 points and 22 rebounds per game his senior year, leading his team to the Connecticut state title. He was highly recruited out of High School by schools such as the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

(URI),

Providence College Providence College is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic university in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1917 by the Dominican Order and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, local diocese, it offers 47 undergradua ...

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

and others. He verbally committed to Providence College and is credited with intensifying the rivalry between the URI and Providence College after signing a letter of intent to attend URI the first day of his fall semester, when he was supposed to arrive at Providence. He spent his whole college career attending URI. In August 2002 he pleaded guilty to

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

charges after allegedly holding a woman captive for about 24 hours and threatening her with a knife in September 2001, and raping a second woman in January 2002.Former NBA player pleads guilty to kidnapping
/ref> The cases were consolidated and Williams was charged with first-degree rape, sodomy and first-degree kidnapping. He was sentenced to up to five years in prison. Williams was working for a pipe and plastics company at the time of his arrest.

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1958 births Living people 21st-century American criminals African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American male criminals American men's basketball players American people convicted of kidnapping American rapists American sportspeople convicted of crimes Atlanta Hawks players Basketball players from New Haven, Connecticut Boston Celtics players New York Knicks draft picks New York Knicks players Rhode Island Rams men's basketball players Shooting guards Small forwards 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{1950s-US-basketball-bio-stub