Deron Williams never expressed envy toward his more decorated teammate at The Colony High School.
But Williams remembered every honor that was bestowed upon Bracey Wright but not him. He remembered every time a high-profile college coach didn't ask about him during a visit to The Colony's campus.
Williams, a pass-first point guard without a flashy game, didn't complain about being the second fiddle, nor did he begrudge his friend. He simply stored every perceived slight and used them to fuel his obsession of fulfilling the immense potential he knew he had.
"It motivated me a lot to see the attention Bracey was getting," Williams said. "He deserved it, but at the same time, I wanted that same attention. It made me work harder. It made me want it a lot more."
Five years later, the national spotlight has found Williams. He's led the Utah Jazz to a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals against the Golden State Warriors, who are suddenly media darlings after their historic first-round upset of the Mavericks.
Deron Williams ranked second behind Phoenix's Steve Nash with 9.3 assists per game this season.
The duel with Dallas killer Baron Davis represents an opportunity for Williams to prove he's one of the NBA's elite point guards in only his second pro season.
Williams had 31 points and eight assists in Game 1. He spent most of Game 2 in foul trouble while Davis dominated with 36 points. But Williams excelled down the stretch. He had nine points and six assists after the beginning of the fourth quarter, hitting a 10-foot floater to force overtime.
"Deron Williams is going to be a household name after this series," Charles Barkley told the TNT audience after Game 1.
The silent star
Williams was somewhat of an afterthought in the most star-studded class of basketball prospects to come through the area. Wright was joined by Lincoln's Chris Bosh and Cedar Hill's Daniel Horton in the McDonald's All-American Game, which Williams watched from home, determined to prove the selection committee erred by omitting him. There was debate whether Bryan Hopkins, Bosh's acrobatic sidekick on a mythical national championship team, was a better point guard than Williams.
The bumper crop of local talent sparked Williams' competitiveness. He considered the other stars, especially Wright, as measuring sticks.
"Now, everything has changed," said Wright, a shooting guard who will become a free agent this summer after playing sparingly the last two seasons for the Minnesota Timberwolves. "I kind of see myself doing the same thing with him."
All the tools to succeed
Williams averaged 16.2 points and ranked second behind the Suns' Steve Nash with 9.3 assists per game this season. At 6-3, 205 pounds, he has a rare combination of strength and quickness for a point guard. But his best attributes are intangibles, according to those who have helped shape his game.
Former The Colony coach Tommy Thomas and ex-Mavericks point guard Derek Harper rave about Williams' desire and work ethic. Thomas said Williams never left school until the gym was locked for the night. Harper, whose son, Darius, played on several youth teams with Williams, said he always knew Williams had a chance to be special because of his eagerness to improve.
Utah coach Jerry Sloan says Williams' intelligence is one of the biggest keys to his success. That's high praise from a grumpy guy who coached all-time assists leader John Stockton for his entire career. Williams works out with Stockton in Washington each off-season and picks his brain about such topics as the intricacies of Sloan's offensive sets.
Williams also has a feel for knowing when to distribute the ball and when to take over a game. He was the third-leading scorer on Illinois' national runner-up team in 2005, but he scored 31 points to spark a comeback over Arizona that clinched a Final Four berth.
"As a point guard, you have to be sort of a silent assassin in a lot of ways," Harper said. "You have to have that kind of attitude. That's his attitude. It's very deceiving from the standpoint that he looks almost like he's shy and quiet, but he has a killer instinct inside of him."
Staying hungry
Williams, whom the Jazz picked third overall in the 2005 draft, hasn't had any problem being motivated since he became a multimillionaire.
Sloan didn't make Williams a regular starter until the final two months of his rookie season. Chris Paul, the point guard chosen fourth overall by the New Orleans Hornets in 2005, lit up the league right away. Reporters often mentioned this to Williams, who received the only first-place Rookie of the Year vote that didn't go to Paul.
"I thought I could do some of these things last year if I was given the same opportunity, but that's not how it went," Williams said. "I just wanted to have a good summer. I had a productive summer, worked hard, got in the best shape of my life. My confidence level is definitely 10 times higher than it was last year. I'm out there playing free, not worrying about if I make a mistake, I might have to come out or this or that. I can just go out there and play."
Williams has quieted the critics who pounded the Jazz for passing on Paul – "Keep doing it," he says – but he still doesn't think he gets the recognition he's earned. Williams says he considers it a sign of disrespect every time an opposing team's public-address announcer mispronounces his first name; it's pronounced "Dare-in." And he wasn't happy about playing in the Rookie-Sophomore game instead of the All-Star Game in Las Vegas.
"He knew he'd played good enough to be an All-Star," said Thomas, who works for the agency that represents Williams and Wright. "He'll never gripe about it. He never said one negative word about it. All he did was lock it in his mind and say, 'There's some people out there who don't think I'm good enough.' "
