Williams is feeling the joy
His emotions got the best of him when C.J. Williams recalled how he had toiled in France, Greece and Italy and in the NBA’s development league.
So when Williams met with his parents, Wendell and Delores Williams, to tell them that the Clippers had signed their son to a threeyear contract Monday, he couldn’t stop crying.
“When I got there, I couldn’t get the words out,” Williams said.
“I was crying. So my parents are like, ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong? Oh, my God, what’s wrong? What’s going on? What’s going on?’ I’m like, ‘I got the deal done!’ They were like, ‘Boy!’ I scared them at first. They kind of realized what I was trying to do. It was a great moment.”
Williams’ deal is not fully guaranteed, but he will receive some compensation for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, according to an NBA official who was not authorized to speak about the parameters of the deal.
“It’s just great that they recognize that my level of confidence on the court has improved so much,” Williams said. “I believe that I’ve been able to be at this level for a while now. It’s just that the confidence had to come with it, now that I have it.”
The Clippers had signed Williams to a two-way contract to play for their NBA development league team. But because of injuries, Williams spent a lot of time with the Clippers and the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario.
Williams has played in 37 games for the Clippers this season, 17 as a starter.
He averaged 5.3 points on 44.6% shooting, 31.0% from three-point range.
“I actually cried for about an hour because you think about all the things that you’ve done to get to this point and all the times I was mad at my dad having me in the gym until 10 o’clock at night and I wanted to be home playing video games,” Williams, 28, recalled.
“Him yelling at me for doing things on the court that he didn’t want me to do. Just everything just kind of all culminated. I’m just so happy that they were here and they were the first people I saw when I found out.”
Walking wounded
Lou Williams (sprained right ankle) and Austin Rivers (right elbow soreness) didn’t play against the Pelicans Monday night, but Clippers coach Doc Rivers said both may play Wednesday night in the season finale against the Lakers.