Jason Williams not Apologetic - Just Himself

Palm Beach Post

MIAMI ? Jason Williams, the Heat's enigmatic new point guard, is nothing if not honest.

Williams, who will be 30 in November, is married with two children. His basketball career has always been tinged with controversy ? he twice tested positive for marijuana and was kicked off the team at Florida; he sulked after being benched late in games with Sacramento and Memphis; and he used an ethnic slur in response to Asian fans who heckled him.

But, he says, "I wouldn't go back and change anything, even the mistakes that I've made because I think mistakes are good if you learn from them.

"Maybe I wouldn't want to do them again, but I wouldn't change my lifestyle in any way."

Williams, who will make his debut with the Heat when the club opens its exhibition season tonight against San Antonio, says this without apology or indignation. Simply being himself, say those who know him, is the essence of Jason Williams.

"I would say he's very misunderstood," said Florida coach Billy Donovan, whom Williams considers an inspiration.

Donovan doesn't defend everything Williams does. "When Jason feels he gets pushed, or he feels something is not right in his mind, he doesn't always handle it the right way," Donovan said.

But Donovan and many others, including Heat center Shaquille O'Neal, stand stubbornly in Williams' corner. Donovan said that Williams, a flamboyant personality on the court, is a difficult man to know.

"When it comes to being around the media or adults or people who look at him differently he's very shy and very cautious," Donovan said. "If he doesn't know you it takes a while for Jason to trust you."

But once he trusts you, his confidants say, Williams changes.

"He has this aura about him where everybody just likes him," said Heat guard Andre Emmett, Williams' teammate last season in Memphis. "I think if you put him in the middle of a foreign country, everybody would like him."

O'Neal has known Williams for close to 10 years, and for the past three years they have been neighbors in Orlando's ritzy Isleworth. They visit each other and their kids play together.

"I was the one who helped broker the deal this summer," O'Neal said of the five-team, 13-player trade that brought Williams here. "He wanted to play with me and I wanted to play with a guard who loves to pass and I think it'll be a good combination for myself and (guard Dwyane Wade)."

So does Heat coach Stan Van Gundy, who will have Williams run an offense that features two of the game's most dominant talents in O'Neal and Wade.

Some critics think it's a big gamble for a team with championship aspirations to rely on Williams, who has been known as a wild child with the ball in his hands.

But statistics back the Heat. Two years ago with Memphis Williams was second in the NBA in assists-to-turnover ratio at 3.76:1, a big improvement from his 2.43:1 ratio the previous year. Last season the ratio was better than 3 to 1, and on Jan. 21 at Denver he became the only player in NBA history to have 15 assists with no turnovers.

Van Gundy has seen first-hand and on hours of film Williams' court vision, pass-first mentality and knack for running a team.

"He does a outstanding job of getting teams into offense, so this image of Jason Williams ? he's just sort of this free-wheeling guy doing his own thing out ? couldn't be further from the truth," Van Gundy said. "There are times where you're almost surprised by how conservative he is."

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