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Williams sets Nets rebounding record
By Mike Puma
Special to ESPN.com
Signature game
Oct. 31, 1997 - On opening night, Jayson Williams helped ruin Larry Bird's head coaching debut by grabbing a career-high and Nets-record 17 offensive rebounds in leading New Jersey to a 97-95 victory over the Indiana Pacers.
Williams finished with 20 total rebounds, including one off a Sherman Douglas airball that Williams laid in with 38 seconds remaining to boost the Nets' lead to 97-92. "That was a pass," Williams said laughing. "If I don't say that, I won't get the ball."
Williams turned to mental warfare in the final moments of the game. When the Pacers' Rik Smits was awarded two fouls shots with four-tenths of a second remaining and Indiana trailing by two, Williams told him, "You know you're going to miss them both."
Smits obliged.
Odds and ends
While at Christ the King High School, Williams says three colleges offered him $50,000 to attend their schools.
Williams says he added 60 pounds of muscle, growing to 233 pounds, while
sitting out his freshman season at St. John's.
Williams claims he quit the team 12 times while at St. John's.
He graduated n four years, receiving his bachelor's degree in communication arts in 1990.
Williams started only 11 games over his first four NBA seasons. He came off
the bench for 173 games in that span.
After his half-sisters Linda and Laura died, Williams adopted their children. He
has a son Ejay and a daughter Monique.
When Monique had a baby, Williams became a grandfather at 27, in 1995, joining Robert Parish as the only grandfathers in the league.
Williams scored a career-high 35 points against the Atlanta Hawks on April 20,
1996.
Despite averaging only 23.2 minutes in 1995-96, Williams grabbed 10
rebounds per game. He finished behind only Dennis Rodman in minutes-to-rebound ratio.
During the 1996-97 season, he became the first NBA player to host his own internet broadcast, "Jayson's Boardroom."
Williams grabbed a career-high 26 rebounds against the Cleveland Cavaliers
on Nov. 13, 1997.
In the 1998 All-Star Game, Williams scored four points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
His 21 rebounds in a 1998 playoff game tied Derrick Coleman's Nets' playoff record.
Williams was named to the NBA All-Interview first team in 1998 and 1999.
During the 1998-99 NBA labor lockout, Williams donated $20,000 to
Continental Airlines Arena workers.
Williams retired second in Nets history with 1,337 offensive rebounds and
fourth with 2,968 total rebounds.
He made 3-of-24 shots from three-point range for his career.
Williams was a career 44 percent shooter from the floor and 60.6 percent
shooter from the foul line.
In nine career playoff games, Williams averaged 3.3 points and 5.4 rebounds.
During his playing career, Williams was a partner in a construction company
in New Jersey.
Williams married Kellie Batiste in December 1997. They were divorced five months later because, Williams said, she tried to come between him and his friends and family.
Williams met his second wife, Tanya, while in college, but the two weren't married until Williams retired from the NBA.
Williams appeared in the movie New Jersey Turnpike.
After building a 30,000-square foot mansion on 60 acres in Alexandria Township, N.J., Williams says he bought a 150-pound rottweiler for protection.
Williams considers Bill Cosby a good friend.
In 2001, Williams became owner of the New Jersey Storm, a franchise in the
National Lacrosse League. Williams picked "Storm" as a tribute to his alma
mater, the St. John's Red Storm.
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