First of two parts
CLEVELAND — Five and a half years removed from the episode, there’s still alarm in Mo Williams’ voice when describing his introduction to Jerry Sloan’s methods of coaching and communication.
It was the first drill of the first day of Jazz training camp in 2003-04. Despite two stellar seasons at Alabama and optimistic auditions with 14 clubs — stirring widespread projections he’d be drafted anywhere from late lottery to the rear of the first round — Williams was chosen No. 47 (his 374G, one-year deal was non-guaranteed) by the Jazz, a team he had not worked out for.
Before the draft, Isiah Williams had told his son he deserved to be a top pick but cautioned him “to expect the worst.” As much as Mo didn’t want to expect the worst, it happened, thus turning his world upside down.
“It’s amazing!” the All-Star guard declared at lunch last Friday following Cavaliers practice. “Think about it: If you’re drafted in the first round you have 2-to-3 years to develop. But if you’re drafted in the second round, you’re forced to develop almost immediately or you’re out of the league.”
Williams had been the man at the same Jackson, Miss., HS (Murrah) that produced Lindsey Hunter and Othella Harrington and had been the man (16.4 points) at Alabama. He’d always been the best that he could be.
Everything Williams did prepared him to become an NBA player. Yet here he was, basically trying out for a coach purportedly tough on rookies.
“Yeah, I was [ticked], because I knew I was better than many of the guards chosen ahead of me — arguably Kirk Hinrich, T.J. Ford and Luke Ridnour but indisputably Marcus Banks, Reece Gaines, Troy Bell and the illustrious Derrick Zimmerman — but I did not have a chip on my shoulder.”
That came later after Williams made it and it’s still there, he underlined.
“All that was on my mind was showing up in great shape, staying healthy and doing whatever it took to learn the game at the professional level,” he said. “I was fighting for my sporting life.”
On day one of practice, Sloan directed the Jazz to stretch and then called for a three-man weave. Fresh from re-signing (six years, $84 million) with the team, Andrei Kirilenko jogged through the drill while everyone else sprinted. Next time it was his turn, the same thing happened, at least at the outset.
“I’ll never forget Sloan’s reaction,” Williams said with a shudder. “He came storming onto the court screaming, ‘Damn you, Kirilenko, you think just because you’ve got an $84 million contract you can do whatever the bleep you want to do out here! Well, I’ve bleepin’ news for you . . .’ ”
Williams said Sloan’s earthy message was the best thing that could’ve happened to him . . . and the team, a consensus pick to go nowhere fast, yet finished 41-41.
“Man, if Sloan was gonna get on Kirilenko like that, I knew damn well what I had to do,” Williams said. “I was like Speedy Gonzalez. I did exactly as told and then some. The funny thing is, everything I’d heard about Jerry turned out the opposite.”
Well, almost, anyway. Sloan pushed and got on players, no doubt, Williams accented.
“A lot of bad words come out of his mouth. But, if you do it right the next time, in his next breath, he’ll praise you just as heatedly. A lot of coaches don’t understand; they beat you down without picking you back up,” Williams said.
It’s impossible to appreciate how much Williams’ acquisition from Milwaukee during the off-season has meant to LeBron James and the league-leading 58-13 Cavs without understanding his eagerness to be educated by Sloan. Williams always has been impervious to situational stress; he’s credited with seven game-winning/changing shots in Cleveland and countless others during his four seasons in Milwaukee.
More remarkably, maybe, is Mo is undaunted by imperial peer pressure; most secondary scorers gladly defer to the franchise player on big shots rather than risk inviting his wrath with a miss.
And then there was his extraordinary embrace of the opportunity to learn an especially successful pick-and-roll system, as well as a readiness to dig in on defense that Cavs coach Mike Brown is putting to good use.
“Jerry taught me how to be a point guard,” he said. I asked him what that entails: “To think versus rely simply on instincts . . . time and possession . . . teammates needing to be spoon-fed . . . not giving the ball to a big man on the break unless he has a free lane . . . creating space –separation — which is the object of the pick-and-roll, and then reading and reacting.”
Next: Mo rollin’ with LeBron