Top 35 Jay Williams Quotes

Only having a short dose of an NBA career, my entry into pro basketball started in 2003 and ended up being an entry way onto the world of business.

The thing about me is, all my life, the only way I’ve known to be better is to try to outwork people.

When I got hurt – everybody knows I shattered my pelvis – all I thought about was running with my kids one day and being able to have a family.

If there is anything that my life has taught me is that life is unexpected and you’re not always going to know the cards that you’re going to be dealt.

I don’t want to get into who’s the No. 1 player. The player who is the most electrifying to me is Cole Anthony.

For me personally, I played better when I was angry.

You always have to knock down shots in order to win big-time games.

If I take five seconds to think about something on TV, that five seconds is an eternity.

Nolan Smith is going to be a guy that can drive to the basket, can create his own shot.

I can’t imagine the difficulty of going from coaching a college team where you control your own environment to coming to a pro-style where the players control the environment.

The rules within the educational system really teach you not push the boundaries, or not to think outside the box. They teach you to think inwardly about what’s in the box.

I’ve never been the type that’s been highly athletically talented or can jump that high. I’m a guy who’s 6-2.

People love to make comments to me on Twitter or social media networks, and I say it’s easy for you to make a comment because you’re behind a screen where nobody can ever see you.

The only thing that can blow away the Michael Jordan sad face meme, is the Floyd Mayweather knockout meme. If Floyd Mayweather got knocked out – knocked out to the point where he is ice cold on the ground – I think that’s the one meme that can just overwhelm the whole Jordan issue.

I’ve always been around people who are older than myself, I’ve always played on basketball teams with older guys.

I’m a young-old guy. I go home, I don’t need to go out, and I watch TV on my couch and relax, maybe have a cigar here or there. A couple of the coaches tell me, ‘You’re old school for someone who’s young.’

In dealing with athletes or celebrities or people in general, I think there’s a tendency to get on their pedestal or their platform and just kind of blow the ink.

I love journalism and broadcasting. So I’m happy about my life and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Growing up and meeting people, you always want to work hard to become something.

When you’re at the bottom, everybody is taking shots at you. It’s up to you to stay with it and fight through it.

Five years before my accident in 2003, you saw Kobe and Shaq pull up to games on bikes. Michael Jordan owned a racing team. So it wasn’t that weird that I was on a motorcycle, even though it was against team rules. You’ve got to live your life, you know? But yeah, I made a dumb choice.

My story’s been an open book for a long time, no pun intended.

I’ve been around business since I’ve been a little boy.

It’s funny because I think everybody when they see me, the first thing they say is, ‘Man, you could have been a heck of a basketball player.’ My response is, ‘I have a heck of a life.’ Basketball is such a minute thing in the big picture. I almost passed away at 21 years old.

If you have a team that believes in one another that’s ok, but you still need that individual motivation.

I hope people remind me of my accident every day of my life. Because that means I’m a prime example of somebody who had it and lost everything and may not have gotten it back in the same capacity but still reinvented myself.

I love Joakim Noah. He’s energetic.

I’ve had to learn how to control my animation.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that a lot of my identity was formed around basketball, and after the accident I had a lot of animosity toward myself because I’d lost the one thing I wanted to do for my entire life.

I personally love watching greats like Matt Lauer, Scott Pelly, Howard Cossell, Bryant Gumble and others that can stimulate an intelligent, thoughtful, moving conversation or interview.

I don’t really compartmentalize and put players in high school, college, or the pros. For everybody, it’s physically and mentally, where are you? How do you evolve? Where’s your game at?

I see the NCAA holding off as long as possible to continue to make money off of its players. It’s almost like modern day slavery.

I don’t think forcing an athlete to stay in school does anything for the athlete.

Kyrie Irving, before he even played one game of college basketball, had 7,000 fans on Twitter. Seven thousand. So these kids these days are put on this pedestal up here. I really think it discourages the value of hard work and of patience.

I am a point guard. It’s a job that I’m not scared of.