Boston Celtics rookie forward Grant Williams has long carried himself with a wisdom and concern for others far older than his 20 years on earth would otherwise suggest.
Even as a young teen, he felt compelled to put his teammates first, despite knowing it might not be the flashiness he needed to get noticed himself.
Growing up in a family with four older brothers who pushed him to get his believing it was the best path for Williams to get on the radar of area scouts, the future Vol instead focused on defense and passing, thinking that being more skilled in those areas would give his team an advantage, and through them, him as well.
His focus was always “being a team player,” (via CBS Sports’ James Herbert) according to Gabon, one of those four older brothers, who would harass their younger sibling to shoot more because he “was never the guy that wanted to score 40”.
“My dad and my brother, all those guys, they felt like scoring would get you where you need to be,” Williams explained. “And my whole thought process is, like, there’s guys who are paid a lot of money to score who are way more talented than me at scoring the ball, at the time especially.
So I was like, I need to be able to do all the little things first before I can expand my game and be the guy that’s a dominant scorer.”
And all the little things are exactly how Grant rolls both on-court and off, even now, as a bona-fide NBA player. Still only a rookie who can’t even buy a beer, he had the foresight to thank his teammates and team employees ahead of the start of the holiday season with custom candles.
His efforts on the parquet may not be flashy, but like teammate Marcus Smart, his detail-oriented, high-effort approach impacts winning even if not box scores.
“That sounds a little familiar, don’t it?” said the Texan himself (via the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett). “That’s how I came in the league. Of course we love guys like that. You got to. I was one of those guys, and I worked hard to become an offensive threat, and I think I have.”
Being an offensive threat has been, in truth, quite an obstacle for Williams, who has yet to hit his first NBA three over 21 attempts, averaging just 2.3 points per game. Yet, he’s been given nearly 15 minutes of playing time explicitly because of all the other things he does for the team.
Even when still just a young kid on the AAU circuit, Williams was impressing his coaches with his unusual maturity.
AAU coach Kevin Ligon related how he’d often make suggestions from the sideline well in advance of what you’d expect from someone his age, or pass on a chance to re-enter a game in favor of teammates with the hot hand.
One such time, it paid off with a victory for MB1 (his AAU team) as said teammate — Ricky Gouety — made the winning play in the tilt’s final moments.
“The happiest person on the court wasn’t Ricky,” Ligon offered, “It was Grant”.
“He went and hugged him and I said, ‘Coach Grant, once again, you made a good call.’ He said, ‘I just know how it feels to finally get a chance to get in a game when you’ve been waiting to play and you kind of just get your legs up under you. He was getting in the groove and I just kinda knew and could feel that for him.”
Years later in the NCAA tournament, Williams stuck with the same approach, enough an assistant coach, Desmond Oliver, felt his deferment was causing slow starts, and should thus be avoided. The future Celtics’ response?
“Coach, I know. But, man, I gotta get my guys going, my teammates. I feel like, all year, I’ve kind of been the go-to guy and I don’t think we can win the whole thing if everyone knows that I’m going to get the ball and expects me to take 25 shots.”
Familiar indeed.
“He reminds me a lot of me when I came in the league my first year, offered the Boston Celtics current Defensive Player of the Year candidate Smart.
“Just putting my imprint on the game in different ways and making myself so valuable where it’s hard to take me off the court because I can do so many things to help the team. And that’s Grant.”
Williams skills aren’t just diverse in the basketball world, he’s a polymath of sorts with a host of interests, which, like teammate Jaylen Brown, he feels helps his game, not hurt it as some critics suggest of his elder teammate.
“The way I look at life is, if you learn off the court, you can learn on the court,” Williams said. “So if you’re able to learn a language, learning a play should be easy … I’ve always said that, if you’re expanding yourself off the court and do more things and create more habits, you’ll be able to do more on the court.”
Williams is known for embracing his nerdier side, talking up his teammates on all sorts of obscure issues and topics. His inquisitive mind and forward-thinking attitude in terms of diversifying not only his game but himself will serve him well as he matures into a more well-rounded player.
In fact, those skills are already keeping him on the court more than any other rookie on the regular roster (technically, two way player Tremont Waters logged 20 minutes in his sole game with the parent club on Monday, but that was an atypical situation due to Kemba Walker’s injury), his defense strong where most rookies are weak.
“For Brad [Stevens, Boston’s head coach] and these guys to trust me and put me in a position to help this team win is all I can ask for,” explained Williams (courtesy of the Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell).
“Whether I’m playing 15 or 30 minutes or five, I’m going to do whatever it takes,” and a lot of the time, what it takes is the little things that the North Carolinian forward has made a name for himself getting done.
What is the biggest potential obstacle to Williams’ future success? Not much, if you ask his brother Gabon. “Honestly, if we’re keeping it real right now, that man has no bad habits.”
“And it’s ridiculous. The only bad habit he has is being too playful at times. But I think he even corrected that. He knows when to be serious now and he knows when to play. I’ve known this man since he’s been on this earth, OK. The man doesn’t smoke, the man doesn’t drink, the man doesn’t do anything.”
“The man stays out of the way,” he added. Except, of course, on the court, where he’s already making a name for himself doing the dirty work that makes everyone around him better.
And, if the selfless drive pays off at this level as it has at every stop before, the parts of his game which aren’t coming together just yet ought to round into shape as well.
He won’t keep missing those treys forever, after all.
