Yahoo Sports Grant Williams Q&A: ‘I try my best to laugh at the hate and disrespect’
Grant Williams played a crucial role in the Boston Celtics’ Finals run last season. Selected 22nd in the 2019 draft, Williams has not only become a key player in the Celtics’ rotation but also earned a seat at the table of CBA negotiations as a vice president of the NBPA. After declining a four-year, $50 million extension, Williams decided to bet on himself for a more lucrative deal this upcoming summer.
The former Tennessee Volunteer recently took time out of his busy schedule to speak with HoopsHype about the team’s mindset for the upcoming playoffs, the CBA he helped negotiate, and his forthcoming free agency.
After getting a taste of the NBA Finals last season, what do you feel will help get your team over the hump this year?
Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports
Grant Williams: We have a similar roster that is constructed the same. We have a bunch of guys who are driven and hungry ready for the playoff run and itching for this [playoffs] to get started. Super excited because we have trust and faith in this group. Each of us has trust and faith in one another to try and accomplish the goal that we failed at last year. That’s the only goal and mentality that we can have [is] going to the Finals.
I feel like the big thing we needed to fix with was our discipline. Just not only on both ends of the ball, but just our consistency of playing the exact same way we’re supposed to play, no matter what’s going on during the game. Our mental toughness grew throughout the season but also grew through that Finals run. We need to be better with that for each other. And just in regards to the actual growth of the team just continuing to strive to be the best we can be and challenging each other to be great and to not settle for where we were last year.
In terms of the hunger and drive to get past that finish line, do you guys still reminisce about what could have been with last season in the Finals?
GW: You can’t really look in the past. We can’t reminisce on anything, because that’s what it is, in the past. You can’t change what happens, so you got to move forward and make sure it doesn’t happen again. So for us, it’s always been about the next journey, because we can’t focus in on what happened last year, because the next you know, you’re getting in the first round. You’re not even close to where you were the year before. So a new year is a new year, and how you have to approach every single day is that we’re trying to get back to where we were, but that doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed. So for us, it’s never been something that we look back to, other than where we could have gotten better, and how do we improve from.
Losing Ime Udoka after last season must have been a tough blow to establishing the discipline you just mentioned. Now Joe Mazzula comes in and is suddenly thrust into the spotlight. How do all the changes affect the continuity and consistency from last season’s run?
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
GW: We’re fortunate to have a phenomenal staff that’s been with us for the past two seasons. Ime, as I love him, he’s a great guy, he’s a great coach, but Joe is prepared to step up as he’s shown throughout the entire season. He’s gonna lead us and do a phenomenal job just as Ime did when he was here. We’re super excited to see this because we have a group of guys who now have that experience, but we have a coach who was with us last year during that as well, as an assistant. So he’s familiar with what we failed at and where we could have success and he’s going to continue to challenge us to be the best team in the league and to be the one that wins the championship, the one that holds the trophy at the end of the day. So with the full faith and trust in our staff, as well as our head coach, I feel like we’re prepared for wherever that leads us.
What do you see from your rookie head coach this season with his progression?
GW: He’s done a great job, just continuing to adapt, continuing to challenge players, continuing to make sure that we’re at our best. I feel like those are the three things that I’ll say about him, he just is always trying to find what to make the team better, he challenges himself, no matter if it’s shaking something up and trying something new or if it’s trusting the guys who actually did it. But I feel like now he’s done a great job of just trusting the guys that got us there last year, and he’ll continue to do that throughout the playoffs and then continue to be unique in his approach, you know, he’s a disciplinary there. He’s a guy that will always get on you and tell you truth, and that’s you need from a coach.
A big topic of debate has been the criticism of the officiating this season. From the Fred VanVleet presser to LeBron James pleading for a foul at the end of the game against you guys. What are your thoughts on the ridicule the officiating has gotten this season?
Paul Rutherford-USA TODAY Sports
GW: Referees aren’t perfect, man. We can’t expect them to be. Same way players aren’t perfect. So for me, it’s always been trying our best just to respect the game. I feel like the best referees do that and those are the ones who will be on the court with us at the end during the playoffs and during the Finals. Yes, they may make a mistake here or there, but that doesn’t mean we should go for it. Same way when I turn the ball over, I shouldn’t be crushed and destroyed over one possession, you know, there’s multiple possessions during the game that they would have got right, if not more than what they got wrong.
So yeah, there can definitely be issues at times. There’s gonna be frustrations, especially if there’s a correlation or something that players may feel upset about, but at the end of the day, I don’t look at every referee the same, I don’t view every referee the same. So I think from that perspective, we can roll with what we have. So for me, it’s always been like, as long as they do their jobs to their best ability and are willing to admit when they’re wrong, I don’t have an issue with an official because I never expect them to be perfect. We gotta have their backs, they tend to have ours during the game, so I’m not gonna throw them under the bus.
You deal with a lot of hate and ridicule throughout the season, especially this season. How do you deal with all of that?
GW: Yeah, man, you gotta find the light in life. For me, I try my best to laugh at the hate and disrespect because at the end of the day they’re words and at the end of the day, they’re saying it, it’s either not true, or something that I did that I messed up on, and I’d be telling myself that. So for me, I try not to let it affect my mental health at all because I think it makes me tougher to be able to see it and ignore it and move past it than to delete it or throw it away. Because I’m gonna hear it in the stands and then here when I go to arenas, [and] I’m gonna hear about it walking down the street. That’s just how this life works so finding ways to stay positive and finding light is probably the No. 1 priority for me when it comes to any type of fans both positive and negative. When someone’s boosting your head and being as positive as they can be and telling you the best in the world, you’re gonna crucify yourself and tell yourself that you’re not. So you might as well train your mind to be solid one way or the other.
As a VP of the NBPA, how was it dealing with the CBA and finally getting a deal done to avoid a holdout?
Chris Gardner/Getty Images
GW: Yes, it was a stressful process because you want to protect the players and make sure that we accomplish the things that we need to accomplish while also not giving up enough to hurt us in the future. So I think both sides did a great job of understanding and prioritizing what they would want and I feel like we came out of it in a positive position. Each player, I feel like we thought of top to bottom, not just the stars, superstars, but also the number 15, 16, 17, maybe the 18-man or two-way guys. We’re thinking for down the line and in the future and I thought the CBA really went well for us in a positive way.
What do you think about the play-in tournament?
GW: Yeah, we had that agreed to prior to even the CBA negotiations this year. It gives more competitiveness at the beginning of the season, and excites fans to be more in tune. For a market like a Charlotte or Oklahoma City, or a team like Portland or someone this year, who may not necessarily have a chance to win the NBA championship, to bring something to the city that has a sense of value for the season. It doesn’t make them seem to feel as much of a disappointment as it could have been, if they’re not necessarily title contenders or projected to be title contenders and give them something to have weight.
Similar to how La Liga, or the EPL is to European soccer, where you have the Champions League, which every team wants to win, and best teams hopefully qualify and go and then like the NBA Finals.
You said recently that Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were deserving of All-NBA Team selections. What was the process like in getting NBA awards to be positionless in the CBA?
GW: Yeah, the positionless was needed. It was something that for a long time, the best players should be the best players no matter what position they play. Guys like Jaylen who had a phenomenal season [could have the] opportunity to make the cut, which I think he makes this season because no matter how many guards you want to add to the list, he’s been a phenomenal player throughout the entire course of the season. No matter if you consider him a guard or a forward, I think he makes it this year, and deservedly so.
Can you speak a bit about the second apron tax that you guys negotiated in the CBA, where it would give more incentive for teams to keep their players?
GW: So as much as it may come out that it may hurt players, it’s going to three teams. Still not as harsh penalties as it was in our prior deal where they were paying 4.25 times one for a single player, which would make it even more difficult for those top-spending teams. So yeah, I think that for that position/negotiation, we did a good job of helping mostly the lower middle market teams have success and be able to pursue players.
Draymond Green recently spoke out on that saying that it would hurt teams willing to spend. What is your response to that?
Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
GW: Yeah, I don’t think that he fully understood the actual breakdown, and I think as the details start to come out more and more he’ll have a better understanding. He read it off of statements that weren’t fully put out yet and still even the full CBA hasn’t been released yet. So I think as time goes on, he’ll realize that the statement that he made may not have been factual. He’ll have a better understanding and a better feeling about the CBA that’s coming out.
With you becoming a restricted free agency, and testing the market, have you really thought of that?
GW: Nah, you got to focus on today, brother. You can’t focus on tomorrow, can only focus on what’s in front of you. For me, it’s always been about playing to the best ability that I can, and winning as many titles as I can while I’m here. So after that, whatever happens this free agency cycle, that’ll be determined this summer after hopefully, we got the ring in my hand. So that’s the main priority. No. 1 is focused on getting this ring first.
Outside yourself, who’s the best Catan player in the NBA?
GW: There’s a couple of guys that may claim that throne. I remember RJ Hampton claiming that he was good at Catan and said whenever I came to Orlando that we should play. But let’s just say I definitely crown myself king and whoever after that can be a jester.
I haven’t played [any players] yet. I’m welcoming all competitions because it’s difficult [during the season]. Hopefully in the offseason, I get a chance to run into these guys and have a board on my hand, or we can go to Target and grab one and then we can set it up. But I’m not ducking any smoke. Let’s just say that.
