Troubled ex-New Jersey Nets star Jayson Williams bounced out of Rikers Island yesterday after serving eight months for a Manhattan DWI.
The Bible-thumping Williams, 44 — whose religious transformation behind bars earned him the nickname “The Moses of Rikers” — says he wants to live a straight life.
“I am eager to see my daughters, my mother and siblings and make amends for what they’ve been through,” the ex-hoops star said in a statement.
“Start my life over with God being first and in the center of everything I do.”
Williams was busted for driving drunk in lower Manhattan in January 2010 after hitting a tree.
A fellow Rikers con told Page Six in January that Williams got star treatment on the island, autographing Bibles and playing hoops with his fellow inmates.
He previously served 18 months in a New Jersey prison for assault and witness and evidence tampering in the 2002 shotgun death of limo driver Costas Christofi at Williams’ mansion.
After a 2004 mistrial in the Christofi death, the case lingered in New Jersey courts for years — and Williams’ life spiraled downward.
In 2009, his wife filed for divorce, he was hospitalized after a suicidal outburst in a Manhattan hotel room and his father died.
In December of that year, he pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the Christofi case. In January 2010 he really hit rock bottom, getting busted for DWI after crashing his Mercedes into a tree in lower Manhattan.
An NBA first-round 1990 draft pick, Williams had a six-year, $86 million deal with the Nets before a leg injury forced his retirement in 2000.