Former Tennessee Vols forward Grant Williams is currently on the hunt for his first NBA championship.
Williams has developed into a key player for the Boston Celtics, the team that selected the former Vol with the No. 22 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.
The former Tennessee standout likely won’t make any all-star games during his career, but he does a lot of the little things to help Boston win that go unnoticed — little things that are important to the Celtics’ success in the playoffs.
We got an example of this on Saturday in Boston’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in game three of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Williams got a little dirty on a play in the second quarter. As the former Vol positioned himself for a rebound chance, he noticed Milwaukee guard Grayson Allen running down the floor. Williams stuck his body out and absolutely leveled Allen.
Grant Williams hockey checks Grayson Allen. No foul called. #Bucks #FearTheDeer pic.twitter.com/Dcq6woHOp6
— Badger Steve
(@UW_Steve) May 7, 2022
If that was a player not named Grayson Allen, I’m betting the social media reaction toward Williams (from non-Bucks fans) would be a bit more heated. But Allen is known as one of the dirtiest players in basketball, so there’s a good deal of “what goes around, comes around” being directed at Allen.
Little things like that are what made role players like Dennis Rodman and Bruce Bowen so important to championship teams. Williams is providing something that Boston needs in order to win its first championship since 2008. It might not make him a popular player in the NBA, but it’ll make Williams popular among his teammates. And ultimately, that’s all he should care about.
Featured image via Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
from WordPress https://ift.tt/INTyOEh
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment