When someone is trying to earn and hold on to a place in the NBA like Jeenathan Williams, there is no time for stargazing.
Acting star-struck does nothing to help performance.
Williams, a Rochester native who played high school basketball at University Preparatory Charter School, explained that mindset after an NBA game in early March, shortly after joining the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors faced the Los Angeles Clippers led by Kawhi Leonard, who is widely regarded as one of the top players in the league when healthy.
One of Williams’ assignments, who has now appeared in at least one NBA game with three teams since 2022-23, was to guard Leonard.
A star player on the 2019 Toronto Raptors and 2014 San Antonio NBA champion teams, Leonard was scoring 27.8 points per game.
The Clippers won, 114-101, after they came back from a 17-point deficit. Leonard finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists in nearly 29 minutes.
Williams and the Warriors did not shut down Leonard, but Williams drew attention for his defensive intensity. Asked postgame about the “competitive spirit” he showed while guarding Leonard, Williams did not hesitate.
“I fear God. That’s the only man I fear,” Williams said. “I’m from Rochester, New York, in the back streets. If you go in my neighborhood you would know why I’m this way.”
Williams joined the Warriors on Feb. 16 on a two-way contract.
Williams is better known around the NBA as Nat Williams, the name he has gone by throughout his professional career while moving between G League stops and NBA call-ups.
He was with the Long Island Nets in the NBA G League, a group of teams similar to minor-league baseball teams. This is at least the third time Williams has been promoted since he was passed over in the 2022 NBA Draft, according to NBA.com
The Portland Trail Blazers brought Williams out of the G League in spring 2023, and the 6-foot-5, 205-pound guard played in 27 games for that team in the Western Conference the next season.
The Houston Rockets, another team in the Western Conference, had Williams on what is called a two-way contract during the 2023-24 season.
Williams went on to play at University at Buffalo in the Metro Athletic Conference or MAC after high school. At UPrep, Williams became one of the best players in Section V before leaving to spend his senior year-season in the Class of 2018 at Prolific Prep in Napa Valley, Calif.
In 2019, a panel of coaches and sportswriters selected Williams, a two-time Democrat and Chronicle All-Greater Rochester Boys Basketball Team member, to the all-decade team.
James Johnson, who grew up in the city of Rochester, has worked as a full-time journalist covering high school sports for the Democrat and Chronicle since 1996. His career began as an intern during the summer of 1990, before the start of his senior year at Edison in the Rochester City School District. He has become a two-time winner of the Rochester Press-Radio Club’s Sports Media Excellence Award. Follow him @jjDandC on X (Twitter). Please contact him at JAMESJ@Gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester toughness drives former UPrep star as he guards one of NBA’s best
Reporting by James Johnson, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
