Long way from NBA
NAMPA, Idaho – Jayson Williams squeezes and shoves himself between bodies, into that one perfect space below the basket where the arc of a rebound will meet the palm of his outstretched hand. He rises just a bit, throws down a slam-dunk follow that has the place in an uproar, that has the Internet cameraman offering a replay to ESPN.
It is not a dream. It is not 1998 and this is definitely not the NBA. This is a CBA arena Friday night near Boise off Highway 84, a minor-league outpost that makes the Meadowlands look like a sophisticated urban playground. This is Williams’ own private Idaho, a fantasy camp for a 36-year-old multimillionaire, frolicking among $500 per week journeymen.
What a place, what a game. His Idaho Stampede defeat the Rockford Lightning 145-121. Williams has 14 points and nine rebounds in 26 minutes. He is smiling, laughing with teammates, signing autographs. His knee is in one piece. If there is a lawyer among the crowd of about 2,500 at the Idaho Center, he is not giving an opening statement.
Paradise.
“Jayson has an unquestionable love for the game,” said his new basketball career guru, Milton Lee, explaining Williams’ abrupt, unexpected return to the sport. “Being out there with teammates on the court … the camaraderie … he really loves that.”
Williams, plotting a comeback all the way to the NBA, signed on last Wednesday with the Stampede, owned in part by George Karl. Williams has come here to cavort, to forget what ails him, to impress the scouts who are sure to arrive in numbers when they read the box scores and the ever-increasing rebounds.
“It’s tough out there,” Williams said, but he believes, knows, he is on his way back.
You don’t think so? NBA teams are known to embrace damaged goods, if the athlete holds enough promise. Williams is surprisingly fit and limber. He may help any team that is willing to forget his retrial date on a reckless manslaughter charge tentatively set for March 7.
Rod Thorn says he would never think of taking Williams back on the Nets, because of his situation in New Jersey. “I wish him well,” Thorn said. But a half-dozen NBA teams have demonstrated at least a modicum of interest, including Portland and Cleveland.
“When I saw him work out (during a Portland practice at John Jay College), he looked remarkably good,” said Portland general manager John Nash, who overlapped with Williams as GM in Jersey. “Are there concerns about Jayson? That’s not for me to say. Everybody’s got to make their own decision.”
The carrot is dangling out there. All’s well. Or is it? Talk to Williams on the wrong night, and just try to ask him about his dunk or his knee or his pending trial. The world’s best quote is suddenly hustling down a back hallway, telling you he would get in trouble with his media handler, Judy Smith, who once remade Monica Lewinsky.
“I don’t want to start a fight,” Williams said. Then he ducks away, sadly, still hiding.
“Baby steps,” explained Lee.
There have been many of these wobbly, toddling steps for Williams since his trial in the accidental shooting death of limo driver Gus Christofi ended last April in Somerville, N.J. Williams was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter. He was convicted on four lesser charges involving a coverup after Christofi’s death.
He has settled a civil suit with Christofi’s family. He also has settled, Lee said, any possible disputes with an insurance company that might have waylaid part of his six-year, $86 million contract.
But there is still that retrial, after the hung jury. There is an eventual sentencing on the four lesser convictions, which could mean 0-to-5 years in prison. That kind of schedule will ruin anybody’s vision of a playoff run.
Lee said negotiations in the case are ongoing, hinting at a plea bargain that will allow Williams to play basketball well into the spring. There already has been a two-month delay in the retrial, affording him this chance to play in Idaho.
Williams, forever the charmer, spoke with CBA commissioner Gary Hunter at length before convincing the official to clear him for roster duty. Stampede president and general manager John Brunelle also did some soul-searching before signing off on the deal.
“I do a lot of sales and corporate sponsorships,” Brunelle said. “I had to do a little homework. You sit down with Milton, Jayson and (Williams’ wife) Tanya, you know you made the right call.”
There are a lot of conservative people out here, but they believe in the red, white and blue and our legal system.”
Williams is applauded here. He enthusiastically participates in promotions. During a different game, he would wear a camouflage-colored uniform to honor a local reserve unit in Iraq. The sight suggests Williams chose the Stampede to hide from the real world. But Lee asks: “Have you seen where the other CBA teams play?” Yakima, Wash., and Sioux Falls, S.D., are not exactly the Garden.
Williams is still guessing at the offensive sets, stumbling a bit, while offering pointers to less experienced teammates. Tanya is in the crowd, holding their 2-year-old daughter, Tryumph. Their 9-month-old daughter, Whizdom, is back at the hotel with a sitter.
“It’s an entertaining game,” Tanya says, “but it would be like taking a baby to the movies.”
The family will commute between its North Jersey home and Idaho, so that Williams can chase his aspirations on a rebuilt right knee.
The romantic notion that he would be happy just sitting around his estate, communing with nature and children, is a bit unrealistic.
Williams is heartily embraced by the head coach, Joe Wolf, who played for seven NBA teams. Wolf said Williams is good for team chemistry. The Stampede’s best player, Sam Clancy, agreed.
“We needed a big body, and we can always use the free publicity,” Clancy said.
“The publicity is for him, but we’re here, too, and we get some. The way he played tonight, I would never guess he’s that old. He looks like 25 again.”
He had nine seasons with the Sixers and Nets. He made millions as a 6-10 center, an instinctive rebounder who still gives up five inches in a CBA matchup.
But there is always something wrong with the picture, with the replay. That thunderous slam dunk in the Rockford game? He is called for charging. No basket.
With Williams, nothing is quite as it seems.