Lou Williams got called up to the 76ers the week Allen Iverson was traded out. He went from three games in the D-League straight to NBA minutes at 17 years old, and says being ready when the chance came changed everything.
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What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. You spend your rookie year and you spend majority of that, or the good chunk of the beginning of the season at least, in the D-League at the time. Wasn't the G-League then, it was the D-League.
You know what's crazy? That's the most misunderstood thing about me. I only played 3 games in the G-League, bro.
Really?
I only played 3 games in my entire career, but they put me on like they alumni shit.
Yeah, they do. That's interesting.
No, Billy King, our GM at the time, he felt like it was more important for me as a young kid, like I said, I was 17 by the time I was drafted, I was 18 by the time training camp started. He thought it was more important for me to understand I'm working with grown men. I need to be around this environment. I need to be there. I need to feel it. I need to feel that energy. And that's how we carried it. And then my second year, I got to the point, I'm like, yo, I gotta play. And so they figured out a way where I went and played 3, I think it was supposed to be 3 home games. At that time it was the Fort Worth Flyers. Yeah.
Oh, yep.
We was down in Fort Worth. And they had a game on a Monday, a game on Wednesday, a game on Friday, all in Fort Worth. We would have to travel to Little Rock, Arkansas that Saturday, play a game, and then I would fly back.
Okay.
So I played the 3 games, averaged 39 points a game for that week. I got on the team bus, we drove 9 hours, on a bus to Little Rock, Arkansas. I get to my room in Little Rock, Arkansas. Within an hour, I got a phone call in my room, said, "We need you to go to the airport right now. We need you to go to Philly right now." And I'm like, "What the fuck is going on?" And I turn on ESPN and they traded AI. Wow.
So— That's crazy.
The week I went to the— well, it was D-League at the time, but the week I went to the G-League, My last game I was supposed to play, they called me right back to Philly 'cause they traded AI. And I got to Philly at halftime. They was playing the Washington Wizards that Saturday night. I got to the gym at halftime and never looked back.
That's insane. By the way, that's a very monumental NBA moment. Like to be involved in that moment.
I can't forget it. I can never forget it.
That's insane.
Yeah, and the fact that it was like, Everybody know how I feel about AI. He's my idol. You know, I got tattoos because of this dude. My whole thing is based around, you know, the image that he created. You know what I'm saying? Like, so I say that publicly, like, I worship the ground this dude walked on. So for me to have an opportunity to work with him and then our paths constantly crossing, you know, it was cause and effect and it was crazy. But to have him in my corner, And to be a part of his history and for him to be a part of my history, part of each other's stories is, I don't know, bro.
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It fucked with me, but it was more like everything was 100 miles an hour at that time for me. Like you gotta understand, I'm so young and I'm in the NBA. So every single day is an experience for me. Every day, whatever arena we going to, I'm in the arena looking around with the big eyes. Whatever team we playing, I'm looking at the superstars with the big eyes. You know, like every little experience is something to me. So I was hoping, holding on to all of that shit. So once I got my opportunity, I was so locked in on not fucking my chance up, I couldn't really even think about the big homie. You know what I'm saying?
Absolutely.
I was like, okay, this is it. You know what I'm saying? This is my moment. Yeah, this is my opportunity.
That's interesting. My rookie year, I had Mark Jackson was our head coach. And the day before our first game, first regular season game, Day before our regular season game, first regular season game, he pulled me to the side and he's like, "Yo, you know, the NBA has a weird way of working itself out. And you know, you may not get an opportunity right away, but everyone gets an opportunity. And just make sure when your number's called, you ready for your opportunity." So I'm like, "All right, cool." Like in a weird way, I think he telling me like, "Tomorrow you're not gonna play." So I'm like—
Jesus.
Let me mentally prepare myself for that. And so I don't play first game. Second game we play.
Were you dressing though?
I'm dressing. I am dressing. So, and for those of y'all that don't know what he's asking about dressing is, in the NBA you got 15 roster spots, only 13 guys can dress. Other 2 guys are inactive. So I was dressing.
It's 13 now, then it was 12. Facts.
Facts.
Absolutely.
And so I was dressing. Second game of my career. And at that time I came in the league, they had me playing 3, which is a disaster and almost had me outta here. But the second game, Brandon rushed towards ACL. And so I'm sitting there on the bench and I'm like, yo, this is what he was talking about. Like everybody get an opportunity. In that game I still only played 3 minutes, but I, that's 3 more minutes than I played the first game. And like, I try to tell all the young guys now, and to know that that was your mindset at 19. Like, I wasn't ready for that. I was 22 years old and you was 17. Well, second year, so 18 turning 19.
Right.
I wasn't ready for that. I was, and I was messed up because, you know, in my life I had never not played before. Yours even more so than me, 'cause you going from high school, but I had never not played before. So mentally, I just wasn't ready to not play.
Right.
And I'm like, yo, this is a different thing for me. But then I saw that guy, I saw Brandon Rush get hurt. And I'm like, ah, okay, I see what he mean now. And then my chance came and it'll go and it'll come and it'll go and it'll come. But every time it did come, I was ready for it. And I think that's what the young guys don't understand these days. I think young guys these days, sometimes they end up so entitled and they don't understand like, yo, Number one, you don't understand the NBA game coming into the NBA. So although you may be more talented, although you may have more potential and all of those things, athletic and shoot better than this guy in front of you, that guy understands the NBA game. And I think we've done a poor job as guys growing older in this league in relaying that to these guys.
It's like— Well, shit, they eliminating us.
You should have to understand the NBA game.
They eliminating us. You know what I'm saying? A lot of these teams with these young guys, they don't have no vets or OGs in the locker room to give 'em game. You know what I'm saying? That's why my run with the Hawks this past year and a half was a gift and a curse. You know, it wasn't the greatest fit for me to be on the floor and to continue my career, but I had the best time with learning these guys and giving them information and being a big brother figure to them and giving them some game. And they was soaking it up and I thought they was applying it. And it just made me feel like, damn, this shit is important. It's important because sometimes the young guys, we might criticize them and they really don't know. They really don't have the information, but we criticize them like, you need to be doing this, you need to be doing that. The nigga's like, bro, I don't even know what you talking about.
That part.
You know what I'm saying?
That part, absolutely.
So I think it's important for the OGs and for the vets, you know, older guys to be that middle ground, to be that gray area, to kind of bridge that gap for guys to have the information And then for them to apply it as well.
