During a team dinner Friday night in Milwaukee, Nets coach Avery Johnson showed the team a video of rookie forward Jordan Williams working out during training camp, when a then out-of-shape Williams couldn’t make it into the court, and eventually suffered through a bout of dehydration.
“It was funny and serious at the same time,” Williams said before last night’s 105-87 loss to the 76ers in the final New Jersey game in Nets history. “It was like, ‘Wow. I can’t believe I let myself get to that point.’ It was an eye-opener.”
But those times are long gone, and after showing that video, Johnson went on to award Williams with the team’s Most Improved Player award for the 2011-12 season.
“Its huge, man, especially given where I came from,” said Williams, who had eight points and four rebounds in 24 minutes last night. “It’s hard to really talk about it, because I came a really long way from where I was early in the season.”
After spending two years at Maryland racking up one double-double after another, the Nets drafted Williams with the hope of finding a player who could give them some rebounding off the bench. As the season has gone on, he has continued to grow into that role.
Williams has seen his minutes steadily increase, and with that his production has also gone up, to the point where he entered last night’s game with averages of 6.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game in April.
Williams also found himself living out another goal recently, when he started his first NBA game — a goal Williams admitted he was a little surprised to achieve in his rookie season.
“We are in the NBA … it’s every player’s goal to start in a game,” he said. “It’s definitely a huge accomplishment for me. I’ve just been working hard … I wanted to prove myself.”
Williams hasn’t spent much time in New Jersey, but was looking forward to taking part in last night’s capper on the team’s 35 years in the Garden State, and spent about 20 minutes signing autographs for fans before the game.
“We know the fans love us, especially being the last game in New Jersey,” Williams said. “We just want to show Jersey thank you for what they’ve done for us.”