Jayson Williams: The Ongoing Saga

Will the real Jayson Williams please stand up? Is Jayson Williams the gracious, playful, comedic, NBA Star that I met 11 years ago when working on a story? Or is he the guy who shot and killed a limo driver in 2002? He's probably both. When Williams played in the NBA he wasn't known for being overly talented. But he worked hard and played hard and made himself into an All Star forward for the New Jersey Nets. But before his NBA career and after his NBA career, Williams has had a lot-- and I mean a lot of problems. The latest happening early Monday morning when a drunken and reportedly suicidal Williams was tasered by police at an NYC hotel.

When Williams was 15 in 1983, his sister Linda died of AIDS. She contracted the disease allegedly from a blood transfusion after being attacked by a junkie and stabbed numerous times. Five years later, Williams other sister Laura also died from AIDS. In 1998, the NBA All Star game was played at Madison Square Garden. Some colleagues and I were invited to Williams' posh home in New Jersey (where the shooting later happened). We did the typical "rags to riches" story. Tough kid from the neighborhood who turned his life around. The story had a warm and fuzzy ending or what we thought was the ending at the time. Williams was an NBA All-Star at the top of his game. The story also had its moments of horror. We were all spellbound when Williams told the story about when his sister was brutally mugged and how he discovered her blood all over the hallway of their apartment building. He was filled with anger and hate and he acted out, getting into numerous altercations. But he grew up, partly because he took custody of his sister's kids. He cleaned himself up for their sake. And everything was good.

Well everything is not good. First, after a freak collision with Nets teammate Stephon Marbury, Williams broke his leg and his basketball career ended. But he seemed to bounce back, landing a job with NBC Sports as an NBA analyst. He seemed to be a natural for the job. With his knowledge of the game, good looks, and gregarious nature, it seemed like NBC made a great pick. But then came the shooting of the limo driver. I doubt that the shooting was intentional but still it was reckless and an innocent man died. In fact... Williams was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter but the jury deadlocked on a reckless manslaughter count. A retrial is pending. His wife is divorcing him, charging that he had extra marital affairs, was abusive to her and had a drug problem.

Williams is now hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation. Officers found empty bottles of prescription drugs in his hotel room. I really hope he can turn his life around. I won't say I "knew" him, but I've never been to any other athlete's home. He was very gracious and playful. As we were walking by his pool he grabbed me and pretended he was going to push me in. He got a good laugh out of my fear. Then when we were shooting around on his basketball court, he saw me lining up a shot, he yelled out "a hundred dollars"... I turned to him and said "You'll give me a hundred dollars if I hit this shot?" He said "Yeah, and you'll give me a hundred dollars if you miss." I said "No way." Then when I hit the shot, he wouldn't pay up. Go figure. That was a better time in Williams' life. I'm sure he'd like to go back to that, but I'm not sure if that's possible.