Friday, June 24, 2011

NBA News 2011: Second pick Williams' fast rise to No. 2 overall

NEWARK, NJ - JUNE 23:  Derrick Williams (R) fr...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
To say Derrick Williams wasn't highly recruited out of high school might be an understatement.

Williams remembers playing in La Mirada, Calif., and checking all the recruiting websites and outlets to see where he was ranked among the best high school players in his draft class.

One small problem: He wasn't.

"There was actually one site where I was top 100," Williams said. "I was pretty happy. I was excited. Other than that, no. In ESPN I was 72 and everything else I wasn't even top 100."

Two short years later, Williams is No. 2. The Minnesota Timberwolves selected the Arizona power forward with the second overall pick in the NBA draft Thursday night.

He held his introductory press conference Friday and reflected on just how quickly he went from being a complete unknown to labeled one of the potential stars in the entire draft.

Williams didn't start focusing seriously on basketball until the 10th grade, after he grew about 6 inches to 6-foot-6 in a nine-month span.



Enhanced by Zemanta

No comments:

Post a Comment