NBA Finals, a reminder of Grant Williams’ missed opportunity, originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Grant Williams is in the news this week. On Monday, he will be the keynote speaker at the Middle Tennessee High School Sports Awards, which honors the Volunteer State’s top student-athletes. It is a brand of the civic-minded Williams, whose mother is a NASA engineer.
It should also be said that Grant Williams is not in the news this week. When the Mavericks and Celtics tip off for Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, Williams won’t be wearing either uniform, even though he recently wore both.
Among the major and minor storylines of this finale – the return of Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic vs. Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis vs. his old team – there is also this: it is a battle between two clubs who decided they would be better off without Williams. One of them is going to win everything.
The Celtics made this choice last summer when they adjusted their roster and allowed Williams to leave in limited freedom via a sign-and-trade.
The contract year that many of us expected never materialized, so it wasn’t a difficult decision. Williams’ last big moment in a Celtics uniform was certainly questionable, as he battled Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler before the latter took over Game 2 of the conference finals to give Miami a commanding lead.
The Mavericks were not deterred. They signed the burly forward to a four-year deal worth $54 million, viewing him as a tough and experienced addition to their frontcourt alongside MVP candidate Luka Doncic.
It did not work. Williams reportedly showed up out of shape but with his mouth intact, which won’t surprise anyone who’s seen him yap during his Celtics career. What was largely endearing here — former teammate Jayson Tatum clearly loved him — proved irritating in Dallas, and the Mavericks sent him to his hometown Hornets for PJ Washington as part of a midseason roster rebuild that made their run to the Finals a got off to a flying start.
That puts Williams in a difficult position. Not only is he not playing, but if he wants a ring, he’ll have to cheer for the team that jettisoned him in February. Given his longer and happier ties with the Celtics, it wouldn’t be surprising if he targeted former teammates like Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Al Horford, but he can only earn a ring from the Mavericks.
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Let the record show that Williams has produced some legitimately great moments in a Celtics uniform, none bigger than his seven three-pointers in Game 7 to eliminate the Bucks on their way to the 2022 NBA Finals. The Celtics lost to the Warriors , but it seemed possible that Williams would carve out a Draymond Green-lite role for himself in Boston as an instigator and big defender.
Williams instead played himself straight out of head coach Joe Mazzulla’s rotation with inconsistent effort. Last March he was on the bench for the first time and collected five DNPs in the play-offs. By the time the season ended, he suspected his days in Boston were numbered, effectively confirming the pre-draft trade for former Mavs big man Kristaps Porzingis.
So next week he returns to Tennessee, where he was a first-team All-American in college, and gives back to his community. Williams was around Boston a lot – friendly, talkative and sometimes frustrating – but he was never a champion.
His former teammates – on both sides – will try to get that job done without him.
