Jayson Williams Was The GOAT…if hoops were 9 feet tall

Jayson Williams is most remembered for shooting and killing his limo driver.

But before all that drama, he was a top NBA prospect who the Sixers thought would be the next Charles Barkley.

Fat, out of shape, and injured

Immediately upon being drafted 21st overall in the 1990 NBA Draft, Williams was traded by the Suns to the Sixers for a future first-rounder.

This is the start of our story because Sixer’s management, including then-owner Harold Katz and GM Gene Shue, were concerned about Williams’ broken foot that he had sustained during his senior year at St. John’s.

They also questioned his rehab and thought he was getting a little round around the hips, like a former Sixers star.

To assuage their fears, Katz and Shue wanted Williams to run up and down the hallway of the Midtown Hotel in Manhattan, where the draft was being held, to prove he didn’t have a gimp leg. Jayson had a better idea…

He convinced his the pair to come see him work out on an actual basketball court the next day, saying “we can go to a park by my house.”

The 9-foot hoops at P.S. 137

Little did the Sixers brass know that the proverbial ‘fix’ was in.

Williams took them to his old stomping grounds at the John L. Bernstein school and even personally called the principal beforehand to let him know he was coming.

So the scene was set, hundreds of kids outside hopped up on sugar surrounding the court screaming his name, Williams playing on very familiar hoops. It was like a scene out of a bad movie where the hometown hero comes back, just the way he planned.

Williams didn’t disappoint either. According to his own recollection, as per his book Loose Balls. He was flying around during the session! Pulling off crossovers with ease, getting two feet above the rim for dunks.

Katz and Shue thought holy shit! We got a steal with this guy. He’s a star🤩

That might have been the case…if hoops in the NBA were only 9 feet tall like in the park instead of the regulation 10-foot hoops.

The Sixers spent the next two seasons wondering what the fuck happened, as they watched Williams flail around on the court, dribble balls off his knees, and miss layups😭

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