Crime in Sports - #425 - For The Love Of Oprah - Jayson Williams - Part 1

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

This week, we start the saga of a man who truly seemed to be cursed in his younger life, only to end up in some of the luckiest circumstances ever achieved by a human. As he child, he hunted through the neighborhood, looking to stab the man who tried to kill his sister. We also talk about his outrageous contract, love of gunplay, horniness towards Oprah, and seeming inability to take insult in stride, instead he fights people in public. A crazy start to a wild tale!!Have both of your sisters die from AIDS, have a seemingly unhealthy obsession with Danny Aiello, and almost kill Wayne Chrebet with a hand cannon with Jayson Williams!!Check us out, every Tuesday!We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!! Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail] Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS & STM!!  Contact us on... twitter.com/crimeinsports [e-mail] facebook.com/Crimeinsports instagram.com/smalltownmurderSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to crime and sports early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. After the Centennial Park bombing killed one person and wounded more than a hundred, public pressure and a media witch hunt pushed the FBI to find a suspect. Despite obvious holes in their case and unethical tactics, security guard Richard Jewell was pressured to confess. Listen to Generation Y, the Olympic Park bombing on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello everybody and welcome back to Crime in Sports.

Yay! Yay indeed Jimmy, yay indeed. My name is James Petragallo, I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another wild and crazy episode of Crime in Sports. And we're going to do a reboot today, another reboot, because this is a guy that we did, I want to say it was like our fifth or sixth episode,

very early on. We're talking still in the apartment at the table with the bad sound and all that shit. So a lot of our- Throwing cards. Yeah, and a lot of our listeners kind of skip those first, that first kind of six months of it, because the audio wasn't great, because we couldn't have, we just didn't have it.

We were just recording whatever we could. We had nothing. But, and also back then, we were trying to make it an hour long. And this is a story that definitely can't be told in an hour. And there's so many more details that we got nowhere near in the first story. We're gonna do Jason Williams again, baby

Oh terrific. Yeah, he's one of the bigger man one of the bigger assholes too He he started a trend where we were like wow these guys are dicks these fucking athletes who are criminals like really? Put some stank on it But before we get to that definitely want to tell you to head over to shutupandgivemurder.com. Get all your merchandise, get all your tickets for live shows as well. We will be in Minneapolis on September 20th at the State Theater.

Get your tickets right now. That's gonna be amazing. And then also, virtual live show for Halloween. There we get that one, just like a regular live show, but you can watch it from anywhere on the planet Enjoy and you can have it for two weeks after we do it too So you can watch as many times as you want you can wait to watch it do whatever the hell you want with it Shut up and give me murder calm stick it up your ass for all we care. That's our that's our motto

It's our motto here crime and sports stick it up your ass for all we care sit on it and swing your leg. That's right Crime in Sports. Stick it up your ass for all we care. Sit on it and swing your legs. That's right. Patreon you want. Definitely. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. We're gonna have some real fun stuff this week. Now anybody five dollars a month or above a mere cup of coffee will get you so much more than that. Hundreds of back episodes you've never heard before. New ones every other week. One Crime in Sports, one Small Town murder. You get it all over here. All of it. This week for crime and sports, really really interesting thing. There's a guy named James Pudd Galvin. Pudd? Pudd. Like a slang for a dick. Like slang for your dick and balls there. You're Pudd. And it makes it even funnier when you find out

that he's the first steroid user ever in baseball in 1889. We're going to talk about what kind of pud juice they pumped into pud, if it worked or not and then kind of get into some more of like the first, the early, early substances that were performance enhancing. So we'll talk about those. Then for small town murder, let's stay in the old timeyy land and we're gonna do another round of old-timey Murders. Oh, I can't wait. Those are the most fun we find Crazy disturbing old shit in newspapers and they're so back in the day

They were so detailed in the newspaper about it. It's hilarious Oh my god, this person at this address had their face completely ripped from their bones. It was like, wow. So we'll talk about- He went into a foot locker and stabbed her husband to death. As the knife plunged in and out. They're really descriptive. So that and more, patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get all that. That said, let's dive right into this because we got a lot of show.

I think he's a tall man. I think he's he's a tall man I think he's too tall and too big to be held by one episode probably We're gonna talk about Jason Williams Jay, why so and this is not white chocolate not the annoying? overrated point guard of the late 90s and early 2000s essentially was Just had the ball handling skills of the professor, but they allowed him to enter the NBA. He was taller than the professor, that's why.

He had a few inches on him. Yeah, Randy Moss played with him in high school, so that made him. Is that right? Yeah, they played basketball together in high school. There's all sorts of highlights of him throwing alley-oops to Randy Moss, which is fucking funny. But yeah, not that guy.

By the way, he might be the most overrated player in the history of the NBA. Ever, right? Ever. It's because he was, let's be honest here, it's because he's a white guy with handles, sort of, but he was so sloppy, threw so many passes into the third row. Like if you watch his highlight reels, they look amazing. He has some good passes, but if you watch a game, you're like, Jesus, this guy's a mess. He's a fucking mess.

Why don't you make some eye contact and establish the pass before you do it? Listen here, Magic Johnson. You get a couple of fucking rings under your belt. You can start doing that shit, but you're not. You're putting it into the lap of the season ticket holders. Let's stop this. Maybe that's why they loved him so much. He felt like you were participating in the game when he was playing.

Hey, I caught a pass from Jason Williams too. Awesome. Everybody gets one. This Jason Williams, different though, he's the center power forward Jason Williams. Big giant guy. One of the most overpaid athletes in the history of the world. This guy is like the, when you talk about a guy who got a big contract and then just didn't give a fuck anymore and then everything else and got all this

money, he's the poster child for this. It was just the poster child. So Jason Williams will start out born February 22nd, 1968 here. Um, so he's much older than when we started. We were talking about him before. He was still in his forties. The first time he's only eight years older than when we started. We were talking about him before, he was still in his 40s the first time. He's only eight years older than my mom. Yeah, he's eight years older than your mom.

Your mom was born in 1976. Did you say 1968? Yeah, he was born in 1968. Eight years younger than your mom. I was like, your mom was not born in 1976, because you were born in like 1981 or some shit. So that'd be wild. I was born in 1976 because you were born in like 1981 or some shit. So there's no, that'd be wild. I knew you said you were a redneck Jimmy, but I didn't think it was that

serious. That's severe. Yeah. My mom was 11. She was, she would have been five when you were born. That would have been bad. So, uh, yeah, he's a big guy, six foot nine, six foot 10, depending on what they say. and big, hefty guy too. He played center for Christ's sake. Played center, power forward, depending on the team and depending on the situation. He's born in New York City, and he's going to grow up, I guess, partially in South Carolina and then end up back in New York here. His father's name is Elijah Joshua, goes byJ but goes by EJ that's some biblical

shit there goes by EJ but then he goes by a less biblical name around the house which is Big Daddy which is way less biblical which really should be biblical somebody should have been called that if dude if you think if you think God is up there that's Big Daddy I would think right I mean what if you're if there's ever been a Big Daddy it would be the creator of all, if you believe in that shit. I don't know. If Adam and Eve are the first two, then Adam is certainly Big Daddy.

He'd be Lil Daddy at that point. He got plunked down. So he was a building contractor, and his mother, Barbara, worked in a hospital. So that works. He's got an odd family too, because he's got some stepsisters and, ooh boy, he has problems with his stepsister here. Then he's got another sister.

Anybody who is related to him and a woman, look out, your life is in trouble. I'll tell you that right now. Yeah, he's got daughters we'll talk about. It's a lot, okay'll talk about, it's a lot. Okay, so his mother Barbara worked at Governor Skilled Nursing Facility in Lower Manhattan, which I think is when they made, was that when they, Governor's Island still had a fucking hospital?

Was that? Had to be, right? I guess, because they used to have a hospital on there, and I know now it's not, they don't do that anymore, so maybe. Jason is, he's half black, and then he's Polish and Italian also. So I assume, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, Big Daddy's the black guy.

If I had to guess, I'm going to say that, yeah, that's probably how it is. So interesting family, and you can understand kind of where he comes from a little bit but one of those things where I feel like if you come up in an environment of assholes at one point if you get out of that environment and are shown something completely different and still act like that it's on you at that point. You're shown a better way. Yeah that's what I mean especially if they give you a hundred million. It's like, listen, you've been paid handsomely to not be this. Take a fucking class if you have to do whatever you have to do. But this is stop acting like this. Jesus Christ. I'm

back like an asshole. So he is like I said, his father is a building contractor. His father was from South Carolina and his mom, I guess, is half Polish, half Italian but identifies as Italian mostly and, you know, that culture dominated the whatever and I think she's from an Italian neighborhood. So we got a South Carolina black guy with an Italian New York lady. That's the mix, which is a fun mix there. That's by the way, a volatile mix as well. Certainly.

Yeah, it's a volatile mix. It's those Italian girls a volatile mix as well. Certainly. Yeah. It's a volatile mix. It's those Italian girls don't don't take much shit. They don't take shit. There's a lot there. Historically, like an older black guy from the South doesn't take much shit either. Especially in the 50s and 60s. We're talking about he's not taking a whole lot. Those are two people that are going to they're gonna back hands in this out. They're gonna butt fucking heads. Absolutely. That's gonna happen.

You're gonna have to, you need somebody, someone's gotta be a midwesterner or something in the mix. You know what I mean? So it just takes it. Someone's gotta be the voice of calm, I guess I suppose. And with this relationship, there is no voice of calm. Somebody that just can be a piece of drywall. Be cracked and fractured from time to time.

Italians, we can't be mixed with a lot of different people because there's a lot of problems. It's a lot of domestic violence. There's a lot of problems, but we like them and they like us because there's passion. Oh gosh, we love hard. Yeah, but it's, yeah, it's tough, it's tough. So I guess both sides of the family neither of them liked it

Neither of them neither side of his family enjoyed this arrangement either The Italian family is like I don't think so and the black people like fuck are you doing so it just didn't work On both sides they said they called him half breed and zebra Which zebra they just got from the Jeffersons I think. That was just George Jefferson. George Jefferson called, yeah, he called Jenny Willis who was Lionel's girlfriend a zebra because he was his parents were white dad, black mom.

When did Oreos start? Was that in the 80s and late 80s probably? Yeah, probably when Oreos became more culturally relevant I think Oreos. Started having the commercials and look in the middle and shit yeah yeah but at first I think zebra was the main insult there so he also had a speech impediment as well oh that's not helpful no that's that's also not helpful so if you're a big kid with a speech impediment and people are making fun of him I guess his father was born in the South and moved to Brooklyn when he was 12.

Came up in South Carolina and then grew up, which that would have been a hard transition to go. It's a tough South. Especially like in like the 40s or something to go from like the rural South, which was still, you know, there wasn't electricity everywhere back then. You know what I mean? And then being dropped in Brooklyn where people were like, what's up fucking Hick?

And probably beat the shit out of him and robbed him all the time. Y'all better watch y'all's mouths. Yeah, it's a totally different deal here. I guess his father once described how his mother, okay, here, what is this? Oh no, no, this is him. This is actually Jason.

One time, his mother once shot at his father. Oh, that's good. Yeah, Italian women are rough, man. This is never ever for me within a time. I know, I always knew better when I was a kid. And then chased him through the neighborhood with a butcher knife. Boy, oh boy.

Which I've seen both my grandmother and mother chase people with knives. So that seems really reasonable behavior for Italian women here. Jason also says he was sexually abused as a child as well. Who'd he say did that? Doesn't say who it was, he was pretty vague about it. But seemed like a neighborhood thing.

I think maybe somebody in the neighborhood got to him from what I can gather Babysitter or like a just a random Do you give us sex? No, he didn't say anything said he was sexually abused was all he would say so There might be more in his book, but I'm not giving this guy a dime. I'm not fucking paying him I'm not I will not give him a dime. This guy's such an asshole and he has so much money and he does not need mine so fuck him. And I'm not much of a reader I'm not going to start now. Not with this. This is not the thing to start with. So when he was 15, Jason,

his 26 year old half sister, Glinda, got AIDS from a blood transfusion. Yikes, really? Yes, that is pretty fucked up. The fucked up part is the way she got it from the transfusion. Just talk about a fucking unlucky day, okay? Yeah. She was in the hospital in need of a transfusion because she was mugged and beaten with a hammer. Unbelievable.

So, mugged and beaten with a hammer, and then got a transfusion which gave her AIDS and killed her. Because she got it in 1983 when there was no anything. You were dead in a few years. That hammer played the long game there. Wow, that is something. I'll kill you.

This is the article here where he talks about it. They said his childhood ended one afternoon in an apartment stairwell on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He remembers the two block walk home from his junior high school. He remembers the panicked push through the police lining the hallway. He remembers Linda, his pretty 22 year old sister, beaten, bloody and barely conscious. He remembers his two-year-old nephew EJ who had witnessed it all. Oh that's fun. That's some Dexter shit there. Perfect. Police said a man hiding in the stairwell tried to rob Linda when she returned home from the store.

He stabbed her 14 times. He stabbed her. Then forced his way into the apartment and beat her with a hammer so bad that it broke over her head. He broke a hammer on this woman. And yeah, I mean, I've, I, I got a hammer. I built a house with James. I don't, I don't know that it's holding straight. You know, it's a strong hammer. Break a hammer on somebody.

I got to assume it's the handle that broke. It can't be the metal, right? Can't shatter the metal. No. Hmm, was it just a random act, or was it somebody that He was trying to rob her. He was just hanging out in the stairwell, trying to rob her, and she didn't wanna give it up.

And that was that. Now Jason said all she could tell me was he had blood all over his sneakers. That's all he heard his sister say. He said, I went into a rage. I took a knife out of the drawer and I went walking through the park looking for anyone with blood on his sneakers. So this story could have ended real quickly with this guy butchering some nobody who just

delivered a litter of puppies in the fucking park. You have no idea. Wow. So his mother here also has had a lot of problems. His mother had more than a dozen operations for stomach cancer and other problems. Yeah, it's a lot here. She ends up really doting on Jason because, as we'll talk about pretty soon, he's the only alive child that she has

Everybody else is killed very well, huh? Yeah, Linda died two years after she was stabbed and beaten with the hammer. She died of AIDS Two years. Yep from a blood transfusion. I don't know if that was a real really kicked it into supply or what but I mean I realized that AIDS was probably pretty new then. They didn't even call it AIDS yet. They called it grid. It was like gay related intestinal disease, they called it back then. They didn't even want to admit. The Reagan administration was awful at this. They wanted no part of it.

They just said, that's a dirty, those dirty gays can fuck each other in alleys and die tomorrow. Literally, they didn't give to fucks I'm that's not political. That's factual. It's just the way it is They really held back the like AIDS research a decade and because of their not wanting to fucking look like they were Being nice to gay people because it was crazy that somebody evangelical asshole fucking followers Crazy that somebody had full-blown AIDS full didn't know it, and was donating blood. Oh, they didn't, back then, they didn't test for AIDS for a long time. What the shit.

Nobody knew it was even what to test for. And then, so then somebody that didn't, somebody that had full-blown AIDS still didn't, still had a good heart and was donating blood, and then the people that were accepting this blood didn't have the wherewithal to make sure this is clean blood. I mean, granted, they probably didn't even know that that was a thing. No. That you could just give. They didn't know how you got it yet still, I don't think. Blood transfusions, not anal fucking. They wouldn't do research on it, so they had no idea how anything happened, because they literally refused to do any research on it, because that would look like you're pandering to the gays and you can't have that.

So they didn't realize that oh it's everybody oh shit this is a it just spreads easy that way so this is all bankers on walls this is also bankers on wall street shooting fucking needle exactly and so many people found out they had HIV when they started testing for blood people go to give blood they tell them you have fucking HIV they had no idea they were like oh shit yeah and back then that shit was quick I mean it was not yeah there was nothing they could do so it was basically yeah you know a few years and you were dead find a room I don't know man when magic John duct tape it When Magic Johnson said he had HIV,

we all thought he'd be dead in five years. That was it. Oh, Magic's gonna die. That's gonna be sad. He'll be all dead and withered away pretty soon. So it's strange that he now owns a baseball team. That's just the story. The rumor is he doesn't even have it, ever had it.

If you, what was it, just that was a PR stunt? Give me a break. Yeah, no, no, not a PR stunt. It was something, that was a PR stunt? Give me a break. No, no, not a PR stunt, it was something like he. A false positive? No, it was something about he slept with somebody that was very powerful. Get the fuck out of here.

Somebody important to them. Get the fuck out of here. That's the most ridiculous thing. And they made him quit and say that he had AIDS. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. That's dumber than the NBA forced Michael Jordan to take a year off because of his gambling. Because of his gambling. I want them both to be true.

The thing is, both of them go against the logic of what moves the world. What money making. Money, which is the whole point of the NBA. The NBA generally doesn't like to make their most fucking popular star retire, they usually are against that for the most part I don't give a fuck how hurt my feelings are if that person is making me a billion dollars get out there make that billion man who gives a fuck Michael Jordan could have fucking been shooting fucking C lo while he was waiting at the scorers table he was waiting to go into the game after a timeout and they would have been fine he

could have had money literally him and the announcers could have been gambling they wouldn't have given a shit are you joking fuck man I still want to be true because it would make it so stupid one two three motherfucker pay me four five six bitch yeah, anyway, that would be amazing if it was true, wouldn't it? Ah, I mean the greatest conspiracy ever. But you know, anybody that has AIDS or died from AIDS and if that exploitation of that disease,

those people would have a lot to, you'd wanna beat the living shit out of Magic Johnson. That's true, that's true, but actually not, because there's a lot of people that are alive because of Magic Johnson. That's true. That's true, but actually not, because there's a lot of people that are alive because of Magic Johnson. Because that made it, oh, it's okay now. Everybody gets HIV. Now we should be nice to people. We should research the shit out of this.

And also, he was, I don't think anybody that wealthy had gotten HIV in the time where they were actually researching it, where he got experimental drugs and all that shit, where other people weren't getting that shit. So there's a lot of people that died of AIDS in the 80s that didn't, that claimed it was cancer and shit like that. I've never seen a sit down, all honest, God's honest truth interview with him where he's just, you know what I mean? I want him to fucking just say it all.

I fucked this one girl, man. She was dirty and I knew it. I knew it when I seen her and I said, listen, I she was dirty and I knew it. I knew it when I seen her and I said, listen, I smelt it and I said damn it. I said, Irvin, tonight is not the night but damn it sometimes little magic is what I call my man down there that makes me do things. He was just like, nah magic, you know what I'm saying, like it's two thirty, the lights are on man, we gotta get out of this place and she's the only one here So let's do it. I guess fuck it right and you know, I regret it. Oh, yeah

I regret a says show time. I Threw my dick at her behind the back and that was that But I want him to talk about I really would love that of him just being honest about what he what he did How he got it where he got it. He knows Fucking no, he fucked so many women. I don't think he knows He found so many women Plus I mean who knows if that's how he got it too Cuz athletes are always getting stuck up with different needles of different shit vitamins And who knows if somebody had a fucking bad, you never know. I mean, it's who the hell knows

So I want to hear so much out of him, though. No shit. Now, Jason Williams' sister weighed 55 pounds when she died. What? Yeah. What does a skeleton weigh? Fucking sad. 55 pounds?

53 pounds, probably. It's just that and eyeballs. She was too weak to feed her son and do anything. His parents had day jobs, so Williams, who was in junior high school, came home to feed her son on his lunch break because it's from junior high because his sister was too sick to do it. Yeah. Yeah.

So the kid would fall asleep in front of the door, so Williams would have a hard time getting out to go back to school because he wanted him to stay. And Jason said, it broke my heart to have to go out that door He said that the night Linda died Jason had promised to bring her a burger and a milkshake And when he came in the apartment, he realized he forgot the food. So he ran back out Caught a subway and went 40 blocks to a McDonald's Which is a long way that foods gonna be fucked by the time you get it back. In New York?

Oh boy. Yeah, he said, I brought it to her like I promised, and the next morning, someone knocked on my door, and I knew she was dead. So there you go. It was a McDonald's. I think it was, yeah, you know what? I'm not eating that shit ever again.

If you just do simple math, I mean, I get that she had full-blown AIDS. There's that. And was beaten with a hammer and stabbed with a knife but what I would say is she's strong enough to survive all those things but not McDonald's. She couldn't take the fucking double cheese. You could break a hammer over her head and stab her 14 times that's less dangerous than a Big Mac. Can't have it. Can't do a McDLT because this is the mid-80s. Yeah, I think slime did it. Oh, that did it. That's what did it.

So he said that later on, he'll write that when the day the guy who beat her up and stabbed her got out of prison, Jason said he cornered the man and pointed a gun on him, but decided not to kill him, and just ended up letting him go. I can't believe New York let that guy out, ever. Yeah, well, he didn't kill her. Yeah, but he tried. He tried.

The hammer broke. That should be an aggravator, right? I mean, Christ, even if he got 15 years, he'd be out in five. I mean, you know. Savagery alone, Jesus. That's fucking wild to just jump someone and stab them and beat them with a hammer that hard Yeah, but I mean in the end it's still just the charge it is So he ends up going to a New York's Christ the King High School

One of their a lot of good players come out of this high school. It's kind of a kind of a factory Yeah, and he decides picks his picks his college and we always say, never go home. It's sometimes it's worse to stay home. That's also bad. Just sticking around for sticker. Yeah. It kind of helps to go outside of where you're from, go to somewhere else. You learn a whole different thing. He goes to St. John's, which is in New York City. They play at Madison Square Garden. I guess it's not going home if you just never leave. You never leave, yeah. Which is rough because now you have everybody you ever knew is there too, so you can't just

kind of concentrate on your experience and your play and your game and your school work, quote unquote, if you're interested. They're all a witness to the fantastic luck and life you're having. Exactly that too, yeah. People that are around there. So 87, 88 St. John's, they're, Lou Carnaceck is the head coach,

and they're 17 and 12. 17 and 12 over here. They go to- Is he related to Jeff? Jeff who? Hornaceck. Carnaceck. He's definitely not related to Jeff Jeff who Hornisec Carneseca he's definitely not related no Lou Carneseca no no Everybody with a sec related. I think they're all related now lose pretty Italian and a horn a second the least Italian person

I've ever seen so I don't think that works probably NCAA tournament they lost in the first round to Florida. So they made the tournament though with a 17 and 12 record, which is pretty lackluster there. Looking at this team, nobody really standing out as any other real stars on this team here. But he's attending St. John's at this time,

and his sister Sissy ends up dying of cirrhosis of the liver Yes That not much older than her 20s My right at that time his mom is also in and out of the hospital battling her stomach cancer having a bunch of shit like that It's gotta be environmental, right? I don't know. I think it's bad luck, bad genes, bad something. So that summer he's a college freshman and he ends up taking care of the kids. E.J., who is Linda's kid, and Monique is Sissy's daughter. So he watches that. Now he's got custody of them. So St. John's must have been fucking hooking him the fuck up is what that says to me. Yeah. Well, in the

eighties too, it was like unmitigated. They just, you know. Just throwing money at people. Here's a suitcase, come play at St. John's. So he would get up at 6 a.m., take EJ to school in Manhattan, drive home to Queens, get Monique off to school, then drive to St. John's to go to class. Sweet lord, that's single dad shit.

Yeah, after school, the children would attend his practices a lot of the times at St. John's because they had nowhere else to go. So he said there wasn't a lot of time to really be depressed about anybody dying or being sick. At a time when we're debating where policing is going, we're going to tell you where the police came from. They wanted me to write about the New York City Police Department but without using the words violence or corruption, which is effectively impossible. A story of how the largest and most influential police department in the country became one

of the most violent and corrupt organizations in the world. It doesn't matter if you're a self-emancipated law person or if you're a free... They're just sending people back to the South, kidnapping them. When officers with the power to fight the danger become the danger. I was terrified. I'm not going to talk to the police because they're the ones who are perpetrating this. Who am I going to talk to? From Wondry and Crooked Media, I'm Chinjirah Kumanika, and this is Empire City, the untold origin story of the NYPD. Follow Empire City on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad free on Wondry Plus right now. Imagine you're walking through the park one day and you see a suspicious backpack sitting underneath a bench.

You report it to the police and upon investigating, they discover two live pipe bombs inside. You rush to clear the area before they explode, saving countless lives and preventing injury. Everyone declares you a hero for a fleeting moment until everything changes and you are declared the prime suspect. This was the story of security guard Richard Jewell. After the Centennial Park bombing killed one person and wounded more than 100, public pressure and a media witch hunt pushed a desperate FBI to find a suspect. Despite obvious holes in the case and unethical tactics used by the FBI, security guard Richard Jewell was under pressure to confess. I'm Aaron Habel.

And I'm Justin Evans. Join us as we explore the aftermath of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing and the newest season of our podcast, Generation Y, the Olympic Park bombing. Follow Generation Y on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts, you can listen to Generation Y ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Yeah, Jason said, I think I would have been in jail if it wasn't for EJ. I maybe would have done a lot of bad things and wanted to hurt people, but because I believe that the Lord had hurt me by taking, because I believe that the Lord had hurt me by take oh because I believe that the Lord had hurt me by taking my sisters So I'm gonna pay him back here

Though I So he was known as a very physical player on the court kind of a but I mean also if you're growing up there That's that's the playground style. So but also your playground style is full of elbows It's just a lot. Sister that was savagely beaten. Yeah. And then got aides and died. Then you got another one that died and you got to take care of two kids. You're a single dad that these aren't even your kids.

He's probably got some rage pent up. I would assume. Physicality is no problem. And he's a big guy too. So it's something that he can be successful at is being physical because he's so fucking huge. He's the only player in Big East history the conference that he played in there to be suspended twice for fighting. Oh only guy ever to do that Yeah, he also once spent three hours in a Providence, Rhode Island jail during his time for throwing a folding chair at a fan Who spit on him? So he's got some some anger, man.

He's got some anger. Why you spit? What are you doing? Spit. Gummy thing to do. He played in 28 games that year. His freshman year here looks like he was nine point nine points and five point one rebounds only played about 23 minutes a game. So, you know, coming in eighty eight, 89, they're 20 and 13 St. John's, so a little bit better.

Malik Sealy's on that team, by the way. Remember Malik Sealy? Yeah, did I say he was dead? Yeah, I think we went through. No, he is dead. I think he is dead, yeah. He had a... I gotta apologize to somebody.

Who was, who's the other guy? I don't know. That I always say. I don't know, not Sealy. Also, Terrence Mullen on this team. I wonder if that's Chris's brother, because Chris Mullen went to St. John's too. Terrence?

A couple years before that. I wonder if Chris has a brother named Terry. I bet he does. Oh, Terry, maybe. Terry, Terrence, whatever, but Mullen, M-U-L-L-I-N, same as Chris Mullen, and they're both, I mean, he's a New York guy, he went to St. John's. It wasn't plural Mullen?

No, Chris Mullen, not Mullins. Was it just? Yeah, it's just Mullin, definitely. So this is, yeah, when his sister died is during this season. So let's see, this year he played 33 minutes a game and he's up to 19 and a half points, 7.9 rebounds. So now he's 20 and eight basically,

which is pretty goddamn good. 88 or 89, 90 St. John's 24 and 10 this year. Wow. Kind of crushing it here. They go to the tournament, they win in the first round against Temple and then lose to Duke in the second round, which Duke was really coming into their own at that point there. So yeah, good team though, not bad. This year he plays, looks like he only played in 13 games for some reason. And he has 14.6.7.8 rebounds a game. But he's in the NBA draft. So his junior year was his best year or yeah, junior year. So here we go. NBA draft 1990. We've done it before. Jimmy, number one pick in the 1990 draft.

1990, god damn it, was it Malik Sealy? It is definitely not Malik Sealy. Sadel, Sadel III, that's the guy that I've heard a couple of times. Certainly not, yeah, yeah, we talked about him a few times. Was it, ah, shit. We've done an episode on him. 1990, Todd Day was in that, wasn't he? I don't know if 90, maybe 91 for Todd Day.

Oh, fuck. Was it Christian Leitner? I don't know if 90, maybe 91 for Todd Day. Was it Christian Leitner? It is Derek Coleman. Oh, DC. DC number one. Number two, Gary Payton. Wow. Good pick there.

1990 he was drafted? 1990, yeah. Good pick. Mahmoud Abdul-Rawuf, or was he Chris Johnson at the time when he was drafted there? Jackson? Jackson, that's right, Jackson. Orlando is Dennis Scott picks number four, so they get a kind of a sixth man, three-point

shooter. You got to do better than that in the top five though. Yeah, at number five? Yeah, number four overall, that is. But this draft though also, there really isn't a lot after this. You got Gary Payton, you got Abdul Roof, who's a very underrated player, Abdul Roof.

He's a very good player. You have him and then you have Kendall Gill after the him. Yeah, sixth man. Decent, but not great. Felton Spencer, Bo Kimball, Rameel Robinson, Loy Vought, remember these guys? Yeah, Terry Mills, Jared Mustaf, who we've done an episode on,

Mustaf, Dee Brown, the dunk contest winner there. Yeah, he's good, yeah. He's good, but I mean, Dwayne Coswell, these are all kind of second, third tier players. There's nobody really that, Tony Kukoc though was taken by Chicago at the beginning of the second round So that was a smart thing that paid off later on one of the first

Overseas players drafted, huh? One of the yeah, he was one like That was shrimp. There was him and then you had everybody wanted some bonus forever But he was like tied up with the whatever communist country He was fucking in with the with the wainy or some shit Czechoslovakia Whatever the fuck it was once the fucking Berlin Wall fell and all that shit Then Portland was able to get him come over when he was old and he weighed like 340 pounds He was still a good player He got like three four good years

He was pretty damn good, but Jason Williams number 21 He was drafted by the Phoenix Suns picked him up. The first round. First round, number 21 overall. Phoenix Suns pick him, which is not something that I. Did he even play? Nope, his draft rights were traded by the Suns to the Sixers for a 93 first round draft choice.

So there you go. I think they probably got Richard Dumas with that, I'm not mistaken the 93 probably I think they might have gotten Richard Dumas with that so anyway, he was drafted there and He said that he didn't want to sign because he didn't want to leave his family. Oh So it was his doing huh? Yeah He said he didn't want to play with the Suns because he didn't want to go that far Ph Oh, so it was his doing, huh? Yeah, he said he didn't want to play with the sons because he didn't want to go that far.

Philly is drivable to New York. I mean, it's an hour change. You can commute there. He said that he has relatives in Italy from his mom's side, and he said he discovered that if you have Italian ancestry, basically it's like to your great grandparents, you can just get Italian citizenry if you want dual citizenship. You can do that. Yes. I didn't know I could be a go get an Italian citizenship tomorrow.

I had no idea about that. So you have dual you get a dual or whatever or you could switch. You could just be there if you wanted to. I don't know why you do that, but you could do that. Yeah. What am I doing there? So it's too fucking hot there. That's why we came here. So hot. I don't want to be here. We're from southern Italy. The beaches are nice right? No it's hot it's fucking hot it's just hot it looks like Arizona the southern Italy I'm

not fucking. Yeah I have seen a lot of dusty shit there. No fuck that that's where my family's from. The beaches look dusty and rocky. Fuck that. Don't they like that? Yeah yes it's terrible it's fucking. It's like La Jolla.

La Jolla beaches are the worst. Up north it's greener and shit like that but Jolla. It's really just are the worst up north It's greener and shit like that, but then you got to deal with the up north people and fuck them Yeah, you know it's a different thing. So anyway Williams discovered that so he was talking about Playing in Italy he could make a good amount of money over there and because citizen he was talking about it Barbara said we had the paperwork ready and we were ready to move over there with him And then he got traded to Philadelphia

So rather than play for the Suns his whole family was gonna move to another country rather than play for the Suns We'll move to fucking Italy. Wow Fuck that madhouse on McDowell. I will not play there. I'll eat salted fish. I don't give a shit No, I will not play with Tom Chambers. I won't I refuse That's really all they had at that point, right? That's it man 90 Jesus No Wasn't wasn't great times for the Suns there and just the beginnings of Kevin Johnson because they had gotten him that year A lot of white faces on the Suns team. Yeah, that was definitely that's what they were going for

So, you know, yeah, you know every team goes to kind of for the ethnic makeup of their city. So the Dodgers, the Dodgers and Mariners always have the most Japanese baseball players because that's who there's more Japanese people there. If the Yankees see an Italian kid, he is on that fucking team because they're going to love his ass. In Utah, they have people who look Mormon. Sure do. Hornisec and Stockton and all those guys, they look Mormon. Stockton couldn't look more Mormon. No, all those guys there. Who wore a fucking Oxford and a black tie every day.

Oh shit. He's just extremely Catholic actually, but still. Put a bicycle helmet on that whole fucking bench and they all fit in. They all fit in. Yeah, give them a white t-shirt and a name tag, or a white dress shirt and a name tag and they fit in. They all fit in. Yeah, give them a white t-shirt and a name tag or a white dress shirt and a name tag and they're in. Yeah. So anyway, 1990-91 Sixers here.

They are 44 and 38 this team. And they got a lot of players from that draft. Is Rameel Robinson there? Rameel Robinson is not there, no, but I'll read their roster for you. And it's a lot of guys people have heard of, just if you're a casual basketball fan. Hersey Hawkins, a guy we may have heard of named Charles Barkley also. Armand Gilliam, Johnny Dawkins, Rick Mahorn.

Let's see, Mike Juminski, Manute Bolas on that team. Robert Reed, Brian Oliver, Jason Williams, Kenny Payne, Mario Ellie on that team. They didn't have Petrovich yet. No, no, no, not yet. So Jersey, I think, had him at the time, right? Oh yeah, Jersey. Yeah, Jersey.

I always mix up the Nets and Sixers. Well, they're from right next to each other, so I understand them. So this year he plays in 52 games, only 9.8 minutes a game this season. That's where Rameel Robinson is also with the Nets. With the Nets, okay, there you go. That makes fucking sense.

He only has 3.5 points, 1.3 rebounds this year. He's playing where Rick and the Horn played. What are you going to do? Yeah, he only played 9.8 minutes a game, so there's not much he can really do here. But he makes $500,000 for himself. That's not bad. So not too shabby. 91-92 Philly, 35 and 47 they are. And this team, that's

not great at all. No wonder why Barkley wanted out of there. Jesus Christ. I wonder why he wanted to go to the Sun so bad. Pretty much the same exact roster I'm looking at. Nobody really, no improvements anyway. Charles Shackleford, they drafted I remember, who very mediocre. So was he a 10 point a game guy something like that big guy though big skinny fuck Yeah, so there that goes that's that season now during that season in January 16th, 1992 There is quite the fire here. Oh Okay, he is not home. He's on the road Oh an actual fire when his house is fucking burned to almost to the ground here. As you can see there's smoke clouds as they're

putting it out it's all fire burned up there. Did Left Eye get the wrong house? I think she did she was like Andre come out now! You're in there Andre! He wouldn't come out and shit there's just a bunch of other people's kids in there. I'm burning it anyway. There was a cardboard sign on the door when he got home. A neighbor placed it there in the event that Williams came back from Chicago and wondered why the house was burned and his family was gone. I would just hope they'd get a hold of him and let him know. Don't you think? Perhaps a phone call.

Maybe a cardboard sign. He might not know. I'm sure he doesn't talk to his wife very often or whatever. Well, treat his house like a homeless guy on an off-ramp. Cardboard sign. It's just pinned to his door, too. You can see it on the fucking door. God.

It's right, check it out, it's right next to the doorknob. So callous. There's like a business card stuck in the side here. I guarantee you there's a Chinese food fucking menu next to it and like a pizza place fucking door hanger. Oh man. If your kitchen is useless, here's a pizza hut thing, but also your family's not here. The sign said, Jason, everyone okay.

Exclamation point. Your car is in our driveway. Fire happened Tuesday night about 10 PM. That's the whole sign. I would like more. That's it? If you knew nothing about it that it happened, you'd definitely want more information than that, right?

Also, whose driveway? Where's my car? In my driveway. You know who I am. Oh, at the end, it's they sign who it is. OK. So I guess he's got to know where that neighbor lives is all he needs to know. But that's it there. So the fire was, he had a bad trip this road trip.

It's a tough week for him here. No shit, come home to what seems like a ransom note for my car. It's in my driveway. It's gonna cost you to get it back. I have your family and your car. How bad do you want your nephew back too? Cause I got him also. See what I've done to your house. Jesus Christ, man.

So they lost to the Bulls. And then he was at the Hyatt Regency where he quote, felt threatened by a patron. So Jason hit him over the head with a beer mug which is pretty extreme for feeling threatened yeah that's a lot of dents that's a deadly weapon here no charges are filed against him and the other guy gets arrested he must have really threatened him I guess so so yeah they said this is from the newspaper eerie darkness enveloped the Williams house last evening. The acrid smell of ash still hung in the cold hair. Set back

from the street on the cul-de-sac of sprawling houses, the house had severe second-floor damage and some interior damage to the living room. A side window revealed a twisted ceiling fan atop a sofa that had been transformed into a heap of cinders. Jesus Christ. Exactly how the blaze started is unclear. According to the neighbor Dennis Ungreidy, who I believe that's who signed it, looking for it by the signature, yeah, whose name was at the bottom of the note, the fire appears to have started in the upstairs bedroom and the cause could have been a lamp that toppled over.

Could have been, I guess. Could have been, I suppose. Yeah, back then that could definitely feel like a blanket fell on it and it gets hot. Oh man, those bulbs got so hot. So fucking hot. You remember trying to touch them and you were like, that's, I'm sure that's safe. That's fine. Trying to put like a thin thing over it to make it like some mood lighting.

Then there's smoke. Then there's flames. Can't do that here. So I guess visiting Williams in the house when the fire started were his mother there and she had an injured leg of course to make it harder to get out of a burning house and also the adopted son EJ., nobody was harmed. Now uncertain where Williams had, they didn't know where he was, they just said he went to New York with his family. So they don't know. Ungrady, the neighbor, said Williams visited the scene

upon returning to Chicago. He was like, thank you for that note. That's really fucking helpful. I was wondering where my car was. Ungrady, that sounds like. Ungrateful. That's, yeah. I am not Grady. Yeah, I'm Ungrady as That sounds like... Ungrateful. That sounds like, yeah. I am not Grady.

Yeah, I'm Ungrady as a matter of fact. So they said that Williams appeared to be in shock. The neighbor said he was just very upset. He said, thanks for helping get my mother and son out of the house. They said Ungrady became aware of the fire when his son Steven received a call from EJ next door who's 12. And according to Steven Stephen EJ said he thought there was some kind of fire in his bedroom.

Oh my. I think I'm in a room that's on fire. I'm not sure though. I can't tell. Let me get back to you in a minute. I don't know here. Dennis Ungrady hurried across the lawn with a fire extinguisher and went into the house and up to the second floor and he said the door to the bedroom was closed and hot.

So of course he opened it. So he opened it. Why is this like this? Why are you opening it? Of course when I opened it I saw the flames shoot up and tremendous smoke. I immediately shut the door and got everyone out, which is what you should have done anyway. Ungreat he said firefighters battled the fire for close to two hours. Jesus fucking Christ.

According to another neighbor, flames could be seen shooting out of the corner of the house and high and gusting winds seemed to stoke the flames. He said, I could see out the window and I could see the whole sky was lit up. So that is a lot going on for him. So that is- That house is destroyed. It's all fucked up. So he's got problems.

That's January 16th, 1992. And then we'll talk a little bit about the bar fight here. He ends up going on the injured list here. He says that, I guess his finger is fucked up, but it wasn't from the fight. No? No, no. He happened to fuck his finger up in some other way in the last two days, even though he got in a fight in the Hyatt. So yeah, you know how that goes. He says though, he walks away from fights. He says this season I've already walked away

from 10 fights, but nobody reports those times. No, because we didn't know. No, because we don't care. We care about when your giant six foot nine ass starts whooping people. That's what we give a fuck about. When it didn't happen, we don't have to report on that. We don't have to hear about it. What do you report? A man was a jerk in a bar tonight and Jason Williams didn't fight him? That's not really a story. Jason Williams encountered an asshole today.

Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Wow. The whole newspaper would be full of that. If every asshole encounter was reported, shit. He said this one. Jason Williams hyper extended his middle finger by flipping someone off today.

By fucking doing that, yeah. Over and over and over again. Happens 10 times a day. He said that he couldn't walk away from this one though. He said the Christopher Vincent, who's 34 years old, the man he hit in the head with a beer mug, he said the guy just wouldn't let him walk away. Williams and the other Sixers were on the second level bar of the Chicago Hyatt Regency

and recall this guy had been haranguing them. This guy's a moron, by the way. Who starts haranguing a group of giant men? Hey, those guys are huge. Those guys are enormous and I couldn't kick any of their asses. I should fuck with all of them, I think, at the same time. I think that'll come out good for me. I couldn't fight one of them, but there's multiple. There's multiple. I'm sure they'll let me just do whatever.

They might be confused as to whose job it is to kick my ass. Yeah, maybe they'll look at each other. No, you do it. It's your turn and then I can keep getting some shots at him. And I'll have just enough time to beat them all. Fuck. He said they described a guy who had been walking around with his eyeglasses on backwards and who wouldn't stop hassling them. And also, he said he had a knife. The backup center for the Sixers, Jeff Rutland, or Ruland, said he was from the planet Lulu.

I don't know what the fuck that means. I guess that's early to Lulu. Fucking nuts. Williams called him quote a 24 hour jerk, which you don't know that you would you meet him for 10 minutes? How could you be aware? He might be great first thing in the morning. This guy, you know what I mean?

He's helpful. He's like, how you like your eggs? You know what I'm saying? He's then he turns into a dick. You got to hang around a while. You got to hang around him at least a couple days. So they said since early that morning Williams has had to deal with Vincent arrested by Chicago police in charge of aggravated assault and with a Tuesday night fire that ravaged his home. Williams spent Wednesday night in New York situating his family and then made it back

in time for the practice at St. Joseph's University. His left hand was bandaged, but he said he heard it when he inadvertently collided with either cliff Levingston or Stacy King of the bulls, not in the fight afterwards. Yeah. He said, and the six or six or general manager said, I've talked to Jason and I'm satisfied that he felt threatened by the situation at the bar. He just reacted. his hair silvers over at this man. This is the beginning of covering for an asshole is what this is. The guy's a 24 hour jerk.

24 hour jerk. He's a jerk. He's a poopy pants. I don't like him. 24 hour poopy pants. That's right. Williams learned later in the day that he had broken the fourth metacarpal bone in his left hand and was placed on the injured list.

Oh, that's a boxer's fracture there. That's a punch, yeah. Yeah. You know. What are you talking about? Okay, you've played a lot of basketball, I've played a lot of basketball, we've watched a lot of basketball.

You very, very, very rarely see guys break their finger on Just bumping it into somebody on the court. I matter of fact I'm gonna say I've never seen that happen or a metacarpal or a metatarsal metacarpal Yeah, cuz the carpal is yes in the hand. That's the force of the punch Yeah, you could break a finger getting a rebound that I could say for sure. This is yeah, unless you punched Stacey King Right you you would oh and that's a big stuff. You could certainly break a hand on Stacey King's big-ass head fuck. Yeah, that shit was long and wide and Him and Bill Cartwright also big-ass. Yeah, her girl. Carly had a little ass head. He had too big a body

a little ass head. He had too big of a body and a little ass head. Looked dense as fuck, but it was a fucking boulder. It was dense. It definitely was like something from outer space that had more density than it would seem like, yeah. Yeah, Stacey King, I think they gave him the name King because it looked like he had a crown on his head. Giant head. So William said that he's sifting through the rubble now.

He said, I went back to see the house to thank the neighbors for helping, for taking care of my mother and son, but the house, the walls are all black, the carpets are burned, suds from the stuff the fire department used to put out the fire. They did a good job. I have to thank them. Suds from the stuff. Suds from that stuff. I like the way he said that. Jesus Christ. William said, the, talking about his bar fight,

the guy had been telling us all night long that he had a knife. He made a move, his hand coming behind his back, reaching into his pants as if he was pulling out a knife. He kept telling me he was from New York and that there was a warrant out there for his arrest. The neighborhood said he was from, the neighborhood he said he was from,

I said that's Donald Trump's neighborhood is that going to scare me must be Queens I would assume either that or or or it was Midtown Manhattan he said it happens a lot that we get harassed I walked away from 99% of them going to Chicago we were getting our shoes shined and a guy asked Manute Bull for an autograph then snatched it away from him and said, you're not good anyway. He said from a new police said that was three 30 in the afternoon. So people didn't have to be drunk. These people are being what Jimmy 24 hour poopy pants is what they're being right now. So 24 hour jerk if they're in the afternoon he's ripping up Manute Bow's autograph, it's not good anyway.

You're not good anyway. I don't need it. This is fucking fun and I need to do it in their own words here. Here we go. In their own words, where are we? Let's see. In their own words, quote, growing up where I did, it's not new to have to defend myself, but I'm no kung fu expert.

The guy came at me, he said he had a knife, I thought he had a knife, I hit him with a beer mug. A to B right there. You don't need to be a kung fu expert because you're six foot nine, two hundred, you're bigger than 99.99996 people, percent of people on the planet. Any away. And any weapon he holds in his hand is more dangerous than a knife because he's got more reach. You can keep them at bay with anything. You can just hold him by his throat.

You're literally a giant person. By the way, no knife was ever found either. Oh, I bet he didn't have one. I bet this guy was annoying and he hit him with a beer mug. Yeah. And they said, well, you're huge. The guy he hit, by the beer mug. Yeah. And they said, well, you're huge. The guy he hit, by the way, Jason Williams at this time,

6'10", 240, the guy he hit, 5'10", 160. I mean, they said, why'd you use a fucking beer mug if you did that? He said, quote, I wanted to make sure. Okay, that'll do it. You should've shot him then. What the fuck you stop at a beer mug for he said he had a knife not a basketball if I punch him how do I

know one punch is gonna keep him down I don't know cuz you're six foot fucking nine and outweigh him by a hundred pounds yeah you know I would say that would probably be it you got almost a foot and a hundred pounds on this son of a bitch. If you put me up against somebody who is five foot four, a hundred pounds, I'm going to destroy him with a punch. Like it's going to, I'm going to knock him like over sideways. Like from the, he's fucked man. There's just not enough body weight.

Don't give me something dense, like a beer mug. Beer mug of all things. On a guy four foot nine. Yeah, Jesus Christ, take that. I will explode him. Take that, what are you gonna do now now that your horse is outside? Now what are you gonna do?

Who's gonna race it tomorrow, huh motherfucker? Put me up against a guy that's four foot nine and I'll bet you his dad will be right behind him saying, don't you hurt that child. Hold on. Don't you hurt that child. If his dad is the same size, if he made an adult. Don't you hurt him.

He said, how do I know one punch is gonna keep him down? I did punch him afterward. Hit him till he submitted. Which was probably the first punch. Probably the first punch I was going to say. This is how ridiculous his behavior is. You know who the mediator was? The voice of reason?

Oh, tell me. Charles Barkley. Is that right? Who's been in more bar fights than any fucking sports person ever. He's thrown people through windows and he was like, Jason, chill the fuck out, dude. What are you doing? Oh, that's terrible. Don't hit him. Don't hit him he said Charles had nothing to do with it I came I came to him for help and he helped break it up

and that's all. Wow William said he sent word through people who were with Vincent in the bar that he would be willing to patch it up. He said I told them I guess this is before oh no this is after because he said I told them I'd even be willing to pay for his doctor bills Unfortunately, he doctored himself by coming at me Okay, he was taken to the hospital where he was treated for cuts this guy and Chicago police said no charges will be filed against Williams He said William said the Chicago police were very nice, but I don't want to see them drop the charge against Vincent.

He gave them a hard time too. Oh, he was a dick to the cops. He was a dick to the cops. He said, I thought about it and it could have been more serious. He could have taken me away from my family. He didn't have a knife though, he couldn't have actually. This man, what would it have taken for him

to physically kill Jason Williams? A weapon. A gun? Cause I mean, his bare hands I don't think it would be possible. And he doctored himself he overdosed him on a can of whoop ass. A can of kill yeah exactly he's old old poopy pants got some whoop ass. He said he could have taken me away from my family he kept telling us he was from New York bothering Newt, Ruland and me everybody. I tried to walk away but this is one I couldn't walk away from. If I turned my back, he might've poked me.

So he said, E.J., I guess, there, he was met by his father when he got back, his father E.J., not the kid E.J., and he asked me what happened, and I said, Dad, I defended myself. And Jason Williams said, he said, that isn't the only bad news. And then he told me about my house burned down.

So by the way, want to hear worse? Okay. He said, but I went out there, looked around and my knees got weak. I thought I was, I thought about a lot of things. I must've had 40 suits and 25 pairs of shoes, maybe $50,000 in clothes in there. The only clothes I have left are what I had on my back.

But I had just put up photos of my late sisters, Linda and Laura. I can replace the clothes, belongings, whatever. Things like that I can't replace. So yeah, I would say so here. He said, when my father said the house burned down, I actually felt a little better. He said he didn't say somebody was hurt. He didn't say somebody was in the hospital. He said everybody was all right. And when he said that I was all right. Now I'm telling myself this could have been much worse. I would say I could have had all this happen and not had a good job to go back to. But I have a good job. I'll deal with the insurance company. We'll get a new place to live. I can get a new house, but I can't get a new mother. Yeah, Yeah, she could have burned up in there with your kids here.

Oh, great points. So yeah, he's got a broken finger. It's the ring finger that's fucked up on his left hand. And he's going to be out for four weeks. And he insists that it did not happen in a fight, as the team's saying. We kind of think it happened in a fight. It's a carpal, man. Yeah.

It's going to go to the wrist. They're like, you know, that seems- know, that's something see if somebody a left. Is he a right-handed guy? Uh Yes, but he punched him several times so I mean it could have been You gotta throw a couple jabs with that left and if you don't catch somebody flat Yeah, you catch them just with your knuckle on top right when they're head around You don't throw a great punch with yep He said that he threw several punches, all with his right hand, though. Never threw a left that was broken, obviously.

He said everything was the right. This was from Cliff Levingston, he said, pointing to his hand. This was from his head. So he said, I broke this on the bull's guy's head. He didn't notice or anything, even though I'm a giant guy who broke a hand on his head. But you know so yeah it's so ridiculous though he's a 24-hour jerk man that's what happens. They said that there were

they talked to the Sixers general manager and they're like is there gonna be a curfew now? Is there gonna be a curfew? And he said to me... One way to solve these things is keep them out of bars at a certain time of night. Well the coach said to me a curfew is besides the fact. At 11.15 and 11.30 at night you come home from your job, you're supposed to get locked in your hotel room, you can't go down and have a sandwich and a beer. I mean this is in the lobby bar at the Hyatt Hotel in Chicago. I mean come on!

He said, I understand there's certain things that go with the turf, but because you're a professional athlete, you have to incarcerate yourself? I don't buy it. Yeah, you can't tell these guys they gotta go home right after the game. Like, after a show, we're all jacked up. We didn't play a fucking NBA game. That would be a much bigger rush, I would think.

I don't wanna be locked in a Hyatt. In a Hyatt Regency? No. I can't believe the NBA was forcing them to go to the Hyatt. The Hyatt, absolutely. That's where they were staying. Had contracts there. Imagine you're walking through the park one day and you see a suspicious backpack sitting underneath a bench. You report it to the police and upon investigating, they discover two live pipe bombs inside.

You rush to clear the area before they explode, saving countless lives and preventing injury. Everyone declares you a hero for a fleeting moment until everything changes and you are declared the prime suspect. This was the story of security guard Richard Jewell. After the Centennial Park bombing killed one person and wounded more than 100, public pressure and a media witch hunt pushed a desperate FBI to find a suspect. Despite obvious holes in the case and unethical tactics used by the FBI, security guard Richard Jewell was under pressure to confess. I'm Aaron Habel. And I'm Justin Evans. Join us as we explore the aftermath of the 1996 centennial Olympic park

bombing in the newest season of our podcast, Generation Y, the Olympic park bombing. Follow Generation Y on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcast. You can listen to Generation Y ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus. He said, I understand that they're okay. Yeah. Um, so the, the players are very opposed to a curfew. Obviously Manute Bull said, nobody's going to come tell me that I should go to sleep like a high school player. I'm going to go to sleep at 11 o'clock. That's bull. And Barkley said, we don't have any curfew. And they said, should you? And he said, no.

I've gotten in one fight in eight years and now all of a sudden I can't go out. One fight and so many blow jobs. So many. I'm going to stay home. One fight and Urkel watched me get my dick sucked? So what? What's the difference? He said that his teammates don't let him go out alone anymore, Barkley says, and after

practice he yelled across the court to Manute Bull, can I go out by myself? And Bull yelled back no. I guess because he gets in the shit, Barkley. So that's what happens. His house is about $100,000 worth of damage on his house, by the way. So that's not great, obviously, but no one's hurt. And that year he plays in 50 games, still only 12.9 minutes of games. So he's still not really doing too much for 4.1 points, 2.9 rebounds makes 650 grand though. That's not bad.

Yeah. In 1992 though, right before the 92-93 season started, he gets traded here. He's gonna be traded to the New Jersey Nets. Right across the river. Right across the river. He doesn't wanna leave the area. He's selling them.

No shit. He's gonna freak out. Barclay got traded that year too. Yeah, he got traded to Phoenix that year. He gets traded for conditional draft choices. Oh, wow. The Sixers basically said, everything we were doing, start over. We're done.

We fucked it all up. Nets can take this guy. We'll figure it out down the road. Don't worry about it. Just take him for now. He averages four points a game. Nobody cares. Just hang on to him.

So that year, they are 43 and 39 under coach Chuck Daly. This is after he left Detroit and came here here They go to the playoffs with that record and yeah, because this is with draws in and Rameel and this is a good team Yeah, they lose to the Cavs in the first round. This is draws and Petrovich Kenny Anderson there Yeah, it's another New York guy Derek Coleman Sam buoys on this team Rameel Robinson Chris Dudley Maurice Cheeks Jesus. He still plays 36 at that point. It's like Mo Cheeks was in the fucking ABA, I believe. He was his last couple seasons, so holy shit, that's old. So yeah, that's the team.

That year, Jason only plays in 12 games. That's not good, 11.6 minutes a game. He's playing on teams where they've got like a good starter. A decent, yeah, 500 or better team. He averages exactly the same as last year. 4.1 points a game again. Oh that's great. Not great. 800 grand he makes. So that's great. That's great. 93, 94, 45 and 37 for the New Jersey Nets. They lose in the first round to the Knicks that year.

So that is good. I think that's when the Knicks went to the finals against the Rockets. So same team pretty much. P.J. Brown added to it. Another big guy there. Rick Mahorn is added to the team as well. He follows him over. January 28th, 1994. This is when Jason has a little bit of a problem. This is Rick Mahorn loves to play for teams that are red, white and blue. Yeah, I guess he does. The Pistons. He also played for the Pacers too, right? Wasn't he on the Pacers for a bit? I don't know. That's a lot of red, white and blue teams. A lot of teams have red, white and blue too. It's a popular color scheme. So January 28th 1994. Jason has a popular color scheme. Yeah. So January 28th, 1994, Jason has a little

bit of a problem. Uh-oh. This is, he's outside of the Brendan Byrne Arena, which is the Meadowlands there in Jersey, and he's going to get arrested in the parking lot of his home arena. At your job. At your job. He's arrested because he shot a gun off and shot the hubcap of an empty security truck at about two o'clock in the morning. Did he know it was empty? Why is he shooting live ammunition? Why are you bucking shots off at work? How many people buck shots off at...

Imagine your job. Everyone out there right now, you go to work, you come home. Now, in the parking lot, after you get off your shift, you just start doing gunplay and firing at like trucks and cars. You're getting fired for that, I think. Even if your job is to carry a weapon, I don't think you can do that in the parking lot. You're not supposed to. Yeah, I don't think in a police force when guys get off their shift, they're like, no,

let's target practice on hubcaps in the parking lot. I don't think that's how it goes. So this is a lot reserved for players and arena executive employees as well. So good. God, a lot. Security guard reported the shooting and he's charged with reckless endangerment and weapons, weapons possession. A firearm in a city setting.

There's a lot. There's a lot. Gotta be urban, whatever the fuck. Reckless. There's all kinds of shit. The weapons possession stems from the gun permit, which allows him to own the gun but not carry It he doesn't have a oh he can only have it at his house or whatever Yeah, so the arrest came after the Nets won they won one 24 98

So he was just firing off some celebratory some celebratory friends. Yeah close. Nope Williams admitted to shooting the gun and consented to a search of his truck where the weapon was found. He gave statements that implicated himself, the police said, and he was released on his own recognizance and must appear in court. The team said, quote, we are disappointed and upset with Jason's involvement in this incident. This brings much closer to home the fact that everyone needs to needs to help in getting guns off the street. Well, they weren't on the street. They were on a wealthy man who said nothing to do with on the street. This had to do with at work.

We need to keep them in the holster. That's all. We need to keep guns out of the workplace is what he just said. We need to keep these guns where they belong in Jason's house where they're permitted. Yeah, yeah. Well, they said that this is what the the nets were into because Willis Reed is an executive and he said the nets are involved in a gun swap program in Newark where you get two nets tickets for every gun you turn in.

$12? As I say, the nets were, I grew up in this area back, the nets were fucking terrible and nobody would go to their games for free. So you can give me a ticket I'm not going there. So that's a crazy price for take bring a handgun to the box office and we'll give you two tickets. Well they did it for toys they've done them for food they do all sorts of those gun turn in drives every gun it's no questions asked for every every gun you bring in, you get fucking whatever the fuck. They don't like write down whatever the giveaway is. They don't write down who you are to compare serial numbers.

It's just like an amnesty drop. You drop them in the box, they hand you a fucking turkey. That's how it works. And you leave. I would drag the river with a magnet and just turn those weapons That's what people were doing really they were getting broken gun anything they could find they were getting them when they would do the toy Ones because they would give away like decent toys and shit. You wouldn't do it for two upper deck nets tickets, probably I'm not doing it for fucking third level net seats. No, thank you. I

Can't even see Derek Coleman from up here. Fuck this. He's huge. His head is a watermelon. Hey, I can't see Derek Coleman sucking from up here. What's happening? Can't see Derek Coleman being a frog from up here. Yeah, being a giant, huge headed frog. He looked like if Charles S. Dutton got blown up with fucking air and lard and they were just like, bigger, bigger, even more.

Keep going until his skin gets lighter. Yeah, exactly. Keep going. There we go. It's stretching. I can see it. It's lightened up by at least two shades. So he pleads not guilty to reckless endangerment charges.

And he said that what upset him most, however, is that an intermediate school class was visiting court the day he was arraigned. Oh really? So there was a class that was like, oh this is the court system, this is like how America works. And he's like, fuck. And so they all see there's

Jason Williams from the Nets. So he says he does charity work with children and was trying to be a role model. Well, maybe don't buck shots off in a parking lot. That'll help. He said this, this teacher had the kids write a bunch of nasty letters to the Nets about me. A bunch of letters in crayon saying what a cunt he is is hilarious to me. I thought I was innocent until proven guilty. Well the kids aren't the jury so don't worry about it. They have nothing to do with it. They play no role in the justice department. No, he said I'm no angel, nobody in the NBA is. Well okay, everyone's a scumbag apparently. Well that's Jesus Jason. Jesus. Shut up. I try to do the right thing.

There's guys going, damn dude, I hold my shit together. I keep my shit secret, unlike you bucking shots off and people with beer mugs and shit. I'm a good father, Jason. Shut up. Jesus Christ. I keep all of my cheating, philandering of any kind, other kids, criminal activities.

I keep it all under wraps, Jason. I don't need your bullshit right now. Nobody's an angel. Nobody in the NBA is. So he's going to plead innocent here to these charges. And by the way, as a 40 cal, he was firing off. Wow. So that's a pretty good, good report on that one. It's not like no one's going to hear it. You know what I mean? Oh, that's a boom. Yeah. It's not getting mistaken for a firecracker, whereas... It's just a step below the 45. Yeah, it's big. So they said, whatever happens in this article, Williams needs to be disciplined by the team,

which says it will mete out punishment after the case is decided. Never mind that the Nets are involved in a guns for tickets program and were highly embarrassed by the incident, it came to light on arguably the biggest day in their history when Kenny Anderson and Derek Coleman were named All-Stars. Oh shit. Jesus Christ. The fact is, Williams should know better. He's a gun collector, an avid hunter who first fired a shotgun at the age of 10, and a regular at ranges. Keep that in mind for later. Oh my.

When later on he acts like he doesn't, he's just you know, oh the guns slipped or you know, oh I'm just, I'm not that like, he is extremely familiar, familiar with weapons, all sorts of weaponry here. So he said, I've got many guns. I don't have too many handguns, maybe two, but I've got a lot of shotguns. I go pheasant hunting a lot. Maybe two. How do you not know how many handguns, maybe two, but I've got a lot of shotguns. I go pheasant hunting a lot. Maybe two? How do you not know how many weapons you own? Especially if it's under three?

You probably know the exact number, right? I could see, I don't know if I have 14 or 16, like that would be okay, but less than three? I don't know if I have four or one. What? Yeah, there's a difference and you probably know. He said that he wasn't using the truck for target practice. This is funny, word has it he's taking the rap for a buddy who accidentally fired the

gun. Like, you listen, you'll get in trouble, but let me take the rap because I won't get in trouble. Meanwhile, he's the guy who's going to be in wait. It wouldn't be in the newspaper if the other guy did it, which is great. I don't know if he thought maybe he could get the cops to just go away because he worked there. Maybe. He said, I'll tell him I did it. They'll go.

A buddy that doesn't work for the Nets accidentally fired around or the guy that works for them? The guy, buddy of it. Either way, why is your fucking gun out and safety off in the parking lot of the Nets facility? For what? Why is there a loaded weapon with one in the chamber? Why are you doing that? Why is it here? And no one said it accidentally went off, really.

They said he accidentally fired the gun, his buddy did, but I don't think so. They hit a hubcap. I feel like... Center punched a hubcap? Yeah. That seems like an aim, man. He's a pretty good shot, I I think is what that says here. So they said whatever happened This is the last thing Williams needs if he's at all interested in developing into a halfway decent player

He should spend less time at the firing range and more time in the gym, right? By the way, he would end up those charges are dropped. So no criminal charges again Oh, that's nice. So he's very, very quickly learning there are no consequences for his actions whatsoever. Not even monetarily, not with the team, not with anything. It's just, there's a couple of articles where a couple people say he's a bad guy and then he moves on with his life. That's it.

So April 3rd, 1994, Williams said, I've heard people say that I act like a big kid and that I need to grow up. I think part of it is that a lot of times I couldn't act like a kid when I was younger. Oh, he had his childhood robber. Yeah. So, you know, now you have to have middle of the night gunplay. Yeah. Obviously. I want to drive Go-Karts. That would be better. He's like, now I decided that I'm going to go fucking get to play mini golf whenever

I feel like it or whatever the fuck. What 12-year-old is sitting out there firing rounds in a parking lot at Hubcaps? You know what I missed? I missed when I was that time in every young boy's life when you just go out in the middle of the night and just indiscriminately fire weapons at strangers cars. Every kid is at it and I just missed it and it's not fair. May or not be occupied, we don't know. I feel like it's unfair.

I didn't get that part of my childhood that all the other kids got. I had to feed an AIDS woman McDonald's. This is not fair. I had to get a milkshake 40 blocks without it melting. This is tough. That's tough. So yeah, he says, off the court, there is little doubt he has done the best he can by his family. Though he has an apartment in Hackensack, William

spends much of his time in South Jersey with EJ and Monique. He built a full-size basketball court in the yard for EJ and has a swimming pool for Monique. Next year, Monique plans to attend St. John's. Williams said his goal is to see both of them through college. He said though, quote, sometimes I don't believe I deserve to have all this and my sisters are not here to share it with me. I get depressed. I still miss them. Understandable. Perfectly understandable. Then May 2nd, 1994, he and Derek Coleman are accused of being in a fight again. Oh? Yeah. Three Manhattan teenagers allege that Coleman and Williams were among a group of men who

fought with them outside of a bar in Chelsea in Manhattan. Good Lord. Not in a fight with each other. They were on the same team fighting children. Against children. Yeah. Well, they didn't get to have a... Remember those days that you would have a rumble with teenagers? were on the same team fighting children. Against children, yeah. Well, he didn't get to have a, remember those days that you would have a rumble

with teenagers? Yeah, I didn't get to have that. And neither did Derek Coleman. So the two of us. We're living our childhood dream. Got together all fucking 13, 14 feet of us decided to get together and have some fun. You know what I mean?

It was robbed from us when I was murdering my sister with America's favorite french fries. Totally robbed her. Totally fucking robbed me of it. Oh my God, Jesus Christ. When I was crying over my sister's AIDS transfusions. So the incident occurred at 3 a.m. Which again, I'm gonna say it this way.

If you're out at 3 a.m. Which again I'm gonna say it this way if you're out at 3 a.m Whatever happens no matter what happens At least partially your fault because Sorry 25 25 for him in DC. That's it the kids can have the other 50 they can have 50 This was I guess this is a bar owned by Jason Williams. He bought a bar. Okay, it's his own bar It's his own outside of his own bar He bought a bar. Okay. It's his own bar. It's his own outside of his own bar.

So it began after the teenagers, two 17 year olds and a 16 year old. Now this is understandable though. I mean the other guy, he said he had a knife and he was going to stab them. I could see being, you know, upset about that. But that's this kid. They went over the line. Three children went over the line when they were teasing them about their loss that night Are you fucking kidding me how much does that sting?

That's some shit you got to put up with and what the fuck are they doing out at three in the morning? Yeah, I'd be more like I'll call the cops and get your ass is fucking taken home by them It's you're not allowed to be out this late motherfucker. But this is crazy. It's children making fun of you for losing a basketball game. They just got their license, man. Yeah. It was against the Knicks too, so they lost against the Knicks.

And you're in New York and the Nets have about 3% of the fans the Knicks have this time in New York. So you're going to get picked on. Three New York. So you're gonna get picked on. Three New Yorkers gave you shit for losing to their favorite team? While you stood out on the street in New York? Weird, right? Strange.

So Jacob Cruz, the 117-year-old, alleges he was punched while on the ground by Coleman after the altercation began. Ariel Saldo, 17, said he was hit by Jason Williams. Cruz needed six stitches to close a cut on his head while Thomas Delgado, the 16-year-old, injured his thumb. Williams showed up at practice with a bandage on his chin. When asked what happened, he said, Benoit Benjamin elbowed me in practice. It's weird how he's always injured from something that happened on the court the same day he gets in a fight.

Isn't that weird and convenient? It's pretty amazing. By the way, Benoit Benjamin, I call him, it's hard to say that because my cousin always calls him- I know, I think it is Benoit though, isn't it? It's Benoit Benjamin. My cousin always called him Benoit Bunjammin because it's funny. He said that would be a hilarious porn name because it is. Benoit Bunjammin. So Benoit Benjamin

is hard for me to get out because I've been calling him Benoit Bunjammin since I was a teenager. So he said he didn't actually elbow him in practice. I've never touched him in practice, as a matter of fact. He said one of those children probably landed a punch on him, I suppose. That's probably what it would be. Midway through the season, Williams, he had a broken leg that was implausibly blamed by the Nets on a post-midnight weightlifting mishap. Oh, in the middle of the night, he broke his leg lifting weights. Normally he goes out and drinks or shoots guns off, but this night he really wanted

to get a weightlifting session in and broke his leg weightlifting. Wow. A healthy man in his mid-20s in the physical peak, really, of anyone on earth broke his leg while weightlifting at 3 in the morning. That's a hell of a military breast. That is something. Word later filtered out that Williams had been involved in a brawl outside of a different bar that he owns He has multiple bars multiple bars. He's also involved in a

Fight earlier this season late night incident where he got the shooting happened there Coleman and Williams have not been charged But detectives from 10th Precinct have made an arrangement to speak to them later this week Wow, so nice to be rich and famous. We'll get around to it. Imagine if me and you standing outside a bar after one of our shows beat the shit out of three teenagers. Do you think they'd be like, we're going to make an arrangement to speak to you later in the week or would we be in handcuffs till Monday morning? They're not taking it as cavalier as the 76ers do. Their trade of Jason Williams. We'll discuss it later.

Just fuck it. We'll get to it later. No, I'm sure we'll be in a chair right then. That is wild, man. So they end up being charged. Coleman pleads innocent in assault here. He was charged with assault here. I don't know what's going on with Jason Williams.

The teens. Should be child abuse, shouldn't it? I would think so. Well, if you beat somebody up who's like over 60, you're not allowed to do that, right? That's a separate charge. So I think under 18 should be a separate charge of beating the shit out of a kid who isn't yours. That should be something that's worse than child abuse to me. Yeah, his parents are going to have a problem with this. Let's be honest, if you have kids, they've given you plenty of reasons to hit them.

So at least you can fucking understand what they're going through. They don't even have to, they can just go inside. The kids aren't allowed to follow them into a bar. They're 16. Just go inside. So, but the teens have filed an $8 million civil lawsuit against Coleman and Jason Williams and another net player they say who attacked them. And police have said they have no evidence that Williams was involved.

Other than three beat up children outside the bar who all say he was. That year he plays in 70 games, starts zero of them. 12.5 minutes a game again, 4.6 points, 3.8 rebounds. So consistently not doing shit, but being tall. That's all he's doing. Fighting folks. Well, he's being an extra body off the bench to bump around with these centers. An extra five fouls for Hakeem or Shaq or whoever the fuck is in there at that point.

It's David Robinson. So he makes 950 grand though. So he's investing in bars. 94, 95, they go 30 and 52 the next the nets do. Not good. Not at all here. Their attendance, by the way, also not great there. Six hundred eighty thousand for the year. Nobody cares at all. Nobody's buying tickets with a Glock this year? No, no, that's funny. Well, I don't think they count the free tickets, probably. So the arena was packed every night, but only a certain amount of people were buying them.

Imagine being a fucking box office person. Somebody just hands you a gun and says, I'll take two tickets, please. What? Well, they had special things, but I'm sure they were marked. So like when handed them in it was like oh, you're one of the gun tickets, okay? Special section for you guys over here plexiglass all around it Springfield armory section yeah, Jesus fuck man, so this year here Jason the next year He plays in 75 games thirteen 13.1 minutes a game,

really stepping it up, 4.8 points per game. Over time. Jesus, but he does make $1,100,000 for that. Okay, get some rest in those minutes. Imagine being that tall back then. You're just. God damn it. He's just sitting there. He's playing.

What a sweet decision he made. 13.1 minutes a game. Yeah. So 82 times a year you have to play basketball for 13 minutes and they give you a million dollars. That's amazing. Holy fuck guys. 95 96 here. 30 and 52. Like we said this year Williams proposes during halftime of a nationally televised basketball game to a model named Cynthia Bailey. To a what? Exactly.

Good for you Jason. Of course he's 6'9 and rich, of course he did. He's like baby I want to score my four points a game for you and only you. For the rest of my life. For the rest of my damn life. They never got married. She accepted because you know it was on national TV but they parted. It didn't happen. So that's pretty interesting. Jason that year though is up to 23.2 minutes a game and he is at nine points and ten rebounds a game. So wow. He stepped it up and he is third in the sixth man of the

year voting is that right yeah so he completely changed his whole lot on this team that year makes two million bucks for it too and he's engaged to a model not a bad year things are going well for this guy right now 96 97 26 and 56 Jesus Christ that's terrible fuck they suck John Calipari is the new coach there this year oh Kerry Kittles is on the team now Jim Jackson oh boy Eric Montross holy shit X-Mans Avery McDaniels on this team Tony Massengill him too remember Tony Tony Massen Berg everybody called him Tony Massengill because I mean, why would you not? These Mossberg doesn't have the same ring. No, it really doesn't

so 9697 season starts This is a 41 games played. He starts Ford at 40 of them. So 35 minutes a game 13.4 points, 13.5 rebounds a game. Oh, Jesus. Wow. So he's a rebounder here. That's what he's doing. He's an itch.

Still not blocking any shots. Still under one block a game. So not doing anything there. $2,250,000 for that year. Doing damn fine. eight, forty three and thirty nine. They lose to the Bulls. They get swept in the first round of the playoffs because that was that ninety eight Bulls team. They weren't losing this team. Keith Van Horn added to the squad here. Sam Cassell, Sherman Douglas, Chris Gatling, all these guys. David Benoit, Yinka Dare, Xavier, Xavier McDaniel. OK, there we go this year holy shit 65 games started 36 minutes a game 12.9 points 13.6 rebounds and he is an all-star is that right worked

his way into a being an all-star at age 29 so my god that is something man you don't see that a lot in the NBA guys just like gradually become good players like that to that extent. You don't see it a lot. So This year. Yeah, he does great and he makes two million to two million five hundred thousand dollars 98 99 the Nets are 16 and 34 what Oh Strike short in season, but still yeah 16 games. They were on pace to win 32 or whatever.

It's not, or less than that, cause 50 games is more than half the season. So they are shit this year, obviously. Stephon Marbury added to the squad of, really these team is just like a $5 Walmart DVD bin of guys that are like. They're old. They've got, they got name, but they're not playing well anymore. Yeah bin of guys that are like. They're old, they've got a name, but they're not playing well anymore.

Yeah, some of them are old, some of them are guys that had a lot of potential that never really worked it out. And then there's guys like Ronnie Cycley coming off that magic run, just kinda, you know, Elliott Perry. Remember wonder where Elliott Perry went after? At the end of being barely serviceable in Phoenix. That's there he is, old socks himself there. So January 24th, 1999, big fluff piece here.

It's in every newspaper. Good deeds set Nets Jason Williams apart. He's such a good guy. I'll read the article. Charity not only begins at home, it usually has a way of staying there. So while the NBA is in the midst of making lottery winners out of tall people who have portfolios to equal their vertical jumps, there is one tiny island in a sea of financial madness – Jason Williams.

He's an island in a sea of madness, everybody. This asshole. He's 6'10". From that height, a person can of madness everybody, this asshole. He's 6 foot 10, from that height a person can see a long, long way. From many of our treetop mercenaries, stop looking for fucking, stop, stop looking for euphemisms for tall people. Just stop. He's not that big.

6'10"? He's 5 inches shorter, taller than me. There's a lot bigger guys in the He's five inches shorter but taller than me. There's a lot bigger guys in the NBA. That's way bigger, yeah. He's, he's less of a, there's less of a difference between me and him than me and you in height. It's not that, he's not a freak of nature, it's, yeah.

It's not out of control. You're growing, he's out of control. Someone hit him in the kneecaps. Scott Williams is as big as him, right? Many guys are 6'9", 6'10". He's not that big. No, not at all. Fucking Larry Bird was 6'9".

You know what I mean? It's the same thing. He said, many of our treetop mercenaries cannot see beyond the end of their own patrician noses however. Their vision tends to stop at their own wallets. Williams is a refreshing exception. However. Wow.

He can see beyond the backboards that he cleans as a starting center for the New Jersey Nets. Williams has signed one of those contracts you've been reading about. The kind that pays a man for one game when it takes a teacher a decade to earn. For seven seasons, Williams will receive $100 million. How the fuck did he get that? He had one decent season, one. How did he. I got one He had one decent season literally look at his career one decent season He was a bench guy until two years ago

And then the last do the last two seasons he's been a starter and this season wasn't even as good as the last season He had there was only two and twelve nine and thirteen six. He's a good rebounder. That's it Did he get like a super agent? How did he get that deal? The Nets needed people. I don't know. They thought he was like their center of the future. Back then a center was a big deal.

Maybe he played Shaq half decent. Cause sometimes when a guy could bump with Shaq a little, that would be a big deal or something like that. But they gave this motherfucker a hundred. And that's all guaranteed every dime of that shit. Guaranteed. He must have played Ewing great. Yeah, no he wasn't playing that well at all like I said 13 points a game is nothing that impressive.

I mean there's guys that have Barkley was doing 12-13 rebounds a game he's also scoring 26 you know what I mean in the early mid 90s not later in the night. But there was a point I mean Rodman didn't score shit but he was getting rebound after fucking 18 rebounds a game yeah that's so if this guy's doing that yeah Rodman's not getting 100 million no they said for that much money this is one of the worst contracts in sports history by the way it literally is for that much money you think a person might be able to buy himself a conscience but most of Williams's peers prefer to simply add another car to the stable.

Not him though, obviously. Jason Williams and his conscience have conspired to make a gesture. It's a thoughtful one and it's not so grandiose that you expect he has only done it for the attention. He's giving $20,000 to the concessionaires who work at the Nets arena in the Meadowlands. 20 grand divided among beer vendors and popcorn poppers isn't going to send their children to college, but it's a nice gesture and it shows an awareness and a certain sensitivity and maybe makes a nice nick in the Christmas bills.

William said, we lost a lot of money for these people. Oh, meaning the lockout, because it was during the lockout. And these aren't the kind of people that are making a lot of money. And the article goes on to say, no, they're not. As a rule, concession workers do it as a second job, extra income to take care of those pesky incidentals such as food and rent.

The reason you'd- Who doesn't know that? Everybody knows, if someone's walking around with a fucking thing strapped to them full of 40 pounds of beer, they're doing it because they need the money. There's no other reason you would make yourself a human beer mule and fucking walk around the upper deck of a basketball stadium. And at some point, the season's over. So yeah, those people are not doing this full time.

They're only there 41 days a year. Right, for three, four hours. That's all. Until the end of the third quarter because they gotta cut off usage. Cut off anyway, yeah. So the reason you do not question Jason Williams' sincerity is that he is not given to grandstanding.

Oh no, he already has a record of genuine concern. He already made an annual donation to the parking attendants and each year he pays the tuition for one student to his alma mater, St. John's. Williams is also a lone voice of reason in the catar wall coming from players during the lockout. While they claim financial hardship, he was saying, you're making $8 million a year. People don't want to hear you crying poverty. The fans are mad at us and they should

be. You ass kissing, dick licking fucking. Do you remember this? I do. This is the time when people were screaming overpaid racial epitaphs of these people. No one said shit to the owners though that made way more fucking money. This is what drives me, every time there's a fucking strike that drives me nuts. The owners sit back and laugh while they from their private islands go these fucking players. Most of them are broken three years after they fucking Jerry Jones just recently said

he's irreplaceable. Yeah. If another rich guy didn't share you dev shit,, you dev-shift. You are hilarious, Jare. That is pretty funny. Maybe they'd win a Super Bowl in 25 fucking 30 years if they did that. Jesus Christ. Irreplaceable.

Irreplaceable. Fuck you. Have you, we've heard of tons of athletes going down hard times, have you ever once heard of an owner that was broke? No, never. No. It's never once happened in the history of sports. Weird, right? Even when they're insanely cheap to these people, they're doing much better. Yep. Wealthy as a motherfucker. Once in the first part of this decade, he was a 76er. Then he was traded to the Nets. Only recently did he blossom as a player. His progress as a person is at least as impressive." Oh my god, apparently so, yeah. He said that mostly what you remember about Jason Williams,

the sixer, is that he was carefree and laughing, frequently a foil and verbal sparring partner for the mentally agile Charles Barkley, and a young man who seemed more interested in having a good time than refining his game. Barkley said of him in those days, part of Jason's problems is that he's too close to home. The distractions are too near. Hey, look at that. Hey, look, it's weird.

It's almost like we thought of that. He gets on the turnpike and he gets to the parties too early and stays too late. He could just go home and hang out in New York. Williams never seemed to take great umbrage to this assessment, although he would point out that if anyone in the NBA was qualified to comment on the rigors of dedicated nightlife living, it was Barkley, the original good time Charlie.

Honest to Christ. But Barkley was dropping fucking 27 a game while he was doing that. That's the difference. If you can do 27 and 12, fuck, maybe that's what's making you get 27 and 12. Don't stop doing it. Good point, yeah.

Checking the tonsils of every woman in town with your penis. Maybe that'll do it. Hey, you know what? If that's what gives you the drive to get those rebounds, I don't know what to tell you. It says Williams finds himself employed by owners who have a social conscience themselves. Lewis Katz who grew up in Camden and Finn Wentworth have already pledged 40% of their

profits to inner city youth. That's actually a shitload of money. They speak of helping revitalize ravaged downtown Newark and building an arena there. No, they end up moving to Brooklyn if you're wondering everybody. And selling to Jay-Z. That's it. They talk about how a sports franchise ought to be an instrument for bringing out about civic good and what a charmingly quaint notion that is. What if it would actually catch on? What if other players followed the lead of Jason Williams? Jesus Christ, let's hope not. Oh, holy fuck. We're in a lot of trouble.

There wouldn't be a limo driver on the face of this earth. Everybody better be carrying. Fuck. What if, quote, agents, I don't know why the agents is in quotes, that's their job, their agents, kicked back a percentage of their gross, of their gross gross to the needy. What would you call such a circumstance?

Civilization? Okay. So he needs everybody to just be giving charity? That entire article was everyone should be just like Jason Williams. Stupid. Because he is the best and the nicest. Everybody give all their money away and then shoot people. Oh my god. So he, Jason Williams Williams April 2nd 1999

Not not good here. They said this is from an article 90 Nets 90 Hawks 85 The Nets defeated the team with the best road record in the East last night and the only real reaction was so what? That is because Jason Williams broke his right leg in the final minute of the game. Oh because Jason Williams broke his right leg in the final minute of the game. Oh no. Yup, he suffered a displaced tibial plateau fracture in his right leg and he has to undergo a bunch of tests. After colliding with Stephon Marbury on Marbury's drive for what was the game winning score, Williams was helped off the court by teammates and was transported to the hospital and Kendall

Gill said it really is like we're snake bit. What do you think the Nets are thinking? We just gave this guy $100 million and there's his leg in two pieces on the ground next to him. And all Kendall Gill can say is, maybe we're snake bit guys. Maybe we're snake bit. Meanwhile, Jason Williams is carrying his leg in a backpack out into the fucking hospital. And the owner of the owner over shoulder is seeing a backpack full of money being damn it she said something goes right and still something goes wrong he was hurting because Jason didn't doesn't get hurt is what they said Jason doesn't get hurt well he's hurt now the Nets have been on a

season-long medical report. Williams has been the only net to start every game and one of only two players to appear in every game. And the coach said it takes a little flavor away from the win, I would say. Williams came charging from the right side as Marbury dashed down the lane and put up a running jumper. Williams had his right leg planted and his left knee crashed into Marbury who rolled through after hitting the shot and bouncing off of Dikembe Mutombo. Why did Jason Williams try to block Stephon Marbury's shot? No, he was he was getting in the lane so he could go buy him. Oh, okay. Marbury went up hit the shot Mutombo hit him and Marbury fell into Jason Williams leg

Like a quarterback that gets rolled over from the side same shit. That's what happened there. Yeah So he this is uh, what was this? Matumbo said Williams must not have thought the shot was going in because he went up so high to rebound it then landed on Marbury's back that was And then then he said this quote. He shouldn't jump so high It's best what? Hold on a second of the rim, babe. So the Kenbe Matumbo played his whole career not jumping to his full ability That's fucking incredible

Imagine what he would have done if he would have jumped as high as he could imagine how many blocks he would have oh my god He had so he should jump so I he was doing great playing from his heels for Christ's sake. Holy fuck man. So after a stoppage, the teammates, coaches and medical personnel and friends, including actor Danny Aiello came rushing onto the court. Why is Danny Aiello on the court now? Why is Madonna's dad from Papa Don't Preach out here? I think you're thinking of Captain Lou Albano. No, I'm kidding, that was Cyndi Lauper, but still. Yeah, I don't know what the fuck's going on. Why is Danny Aiello here?

Who invited him? Fucking rigatoni dripping down his chin. What's going on here? Big fan of the Nets. Oh no, it's the leg! Oh Jesus. Williams thrashed around in obvious pain, half on top of Marbury and Marbury's mother Mabel also joined in the gathering. As Williams laid on the floor,

concerned mother and relieved son hugged at half court. Oh good it wasn't us. You're fine. Marbury said, I had the wind knocked out of me. I may have gotten a knee or an elbow to the back. It was scary. We really need to step it up now. Our top rebounder is out. There you go. So now Williams has some problems obviously. This is not great. He talked earlier yesterday about he was deliberately ducking a hand specialist who'd been recommending surgery on his left thumb.

He said he'd been trying to just play out the season with it. He said, I don't want to hear that surgery now, he says, but if he says it's going to mess with the rest of my future for the next five years, I may have to have the surgery. I guess he broke his nose earlier in the season. He said, I'm going to get that fixed after the season. I'll have it all done at the same time. Knock me out and have the hand guy come in and the nose guy and get it all done at the same time. Knock me out and have the hand guy come in and the nose guy and get it all done at once. Just assembly line him. Fix everything.

Wake up all better now. So 98, 99, 8.1 points and 12 rebounds a game and he makes $11 million. Jesus God. Fuck. The next season they're talking about, he's no lock to be there for the opener either for the next year. No, they're saying he is.

And the Nets are paying his health insurance so they're paying for these surgeries too. Oh, they're paying for everything. Yeah. This is all included in all that shit here. They said this year he has Jason Williams looked as healthy as ever while strolling around the backyard of his massive Hunterton County estate Sunday, smiling, laughing, and reeling off one liner after one liner. Yeah, he doesn't have to pay himself 100 million dollars. This is hilarious, isn't it? Can you believe it? Wow, the Nets Center worked the crowd of more than 600 with such ease that a veteran politician such as Governor Whitman, one of the guests at the Jason Williams All-Star Barbecue Charity

event must have been envious. He's got the governor at his house. Wow. But Williams, speaking to reporters at his indoor basketball court, conceded that he still has a long way to go in terms of healing the right leg that he broke so badly. The bottom line, it's still not a sure thing that he'll be in uniform for the season opener. He says, some days the leg feels strong, some days

it doesn't. It needs a lot of rest. After a day like this I won't be able to do anything. He says he's raised this raised about a hundred thousand dollars for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark as well and also for a pediatric AIDS foundation as well. So that's nice. He said I got to walking really quick but a lot of the muscles have atrophied. It's hard to get the muscles, especially near my hamstring, to really get going. The doctors are a little baffled. That's not good to hear.

If you're the team, you're like, we're counting on this guy. Doctors are baffled. He said, I'm ready to start running and see how that feels, but that's one thing I'm going to listen to the doctors about. It's like the doctor had said, I can get you walking around, but we don't know how my leg is going to feel when I have to run. And jump. Yeah, obviously here. It was a six inch vertical crack, by the way, that he had in his leg. That's a lot!

They said it was comparable to, most of the time you see one like that, it's from a motorcycle accident. Ooh! That's the type of break it was. It's not an on-the-court break. So I don't know if there was something wrong with his leg, was defective or some shit to begin with, if he had some bone. Your leg snapped at a rate that the only people that usually

get those are people that are hauling balls on a motorcycle? Yes. And you did that just as an up-down. Or Stefan Marbury and Dikembe Matumbo going for a rebound. You know what they say, he shouldn't jump so high. How fucking high did he jump? Stayed down on the ground. I don't remember him as a huge vertical guy. So Matumbo must not have jumped at all. Fucking fast. Right over the high side Jimmy, you know how that goes. He must be raising money for all kinds of AIDS, right? He's got children's AIDS.

All kinds of AIDS he's got. Probably running miles for feline AIDS. Any kind of AIDS we can come up with. He's got AIDS going on. Yeah, maybe. So White House AIDS that had to blow people, just AIDS. Or he's out there smothering people with AIDS with a McFlurry. You never know. So the general manager of the team was among a guest list that included about half the Nets players,

as well as celebrity friends of Williams, such as Danny Aiello, of course. Wow. Who knew? Again, he's from Larry Holmes, the boxer, Charles Oakley, and Joe Piscopo, who was the last guy you expected me to say after Charles Oakley, right? He loves Italian actors. That's all he hangs out with it seems like

Black athletes or Italian actors. Nobody else Joe Pesci was late He's too short. He's I can't see him. He's I Think he may have been here. I couldn't see he'll get stepped on in here I can't have him. I'll break my other leg if he's around there. Jesus. I'll trip over him. I want any more B-list Italian actors we can bring in here.

No, De Niro's too famous. He can't come. Anybody else? We can get in there. Danny Ayo. Anybody? Somebody who does like TV movies, but not like real ones. You know what I mean?

Nobody that's been in a Scorsese movie. Automatic disqualification. So they said the doctors from the very beginning said it would be September before we knew the reality of the rehabilitation. They said they will take out some insurance by drafting a big man with the 34th pick in the draft. So you're gonna get a second round draft pick to replace your $100 million.

$100 million cash cow of million dollar cash cow. Oh, okay. So shortly after the injuries ended his season, he consulted with the club president about the possibility of hosting a barbecue to replace the annual charity golf tournament he held the past two seasons because you can't really golf there. Two hundred dollars a piece for this event, by the way. Wow, that's something Daniel Aiello can afford. Hang out in his backyard.

Joe Piscopo made some good money back in the day apparently with his Frank Sinatra impersonation. Was the karate kid there? Ralph Macchio there too, huh? Anybody? Who else is Italian, god damn it? He said, I thought there would be an excellent opportunity to get to know the people who've been heckling me

about my free throw percentage. That's what he told the crowd. Just to make just make sure nobody breaks anything he said. So there you go. Again August 8 1999 Williams is a superstar in compassion. Oh yeah compassion they're saying how compassionate he is. Yeah yeah Jason Williams one Christmas went to a nearby church and woke up some homeless men sleeping over subway grates and gave them each $100 We got wake up

You're like motherfucker. You couldn't wait till I got up already for that shit I've seen that before that's like the most heartbreaking thing in the world to see him keeping warm on those subway grates. Oh, yeah Yeah, that's soul crushing. That's fucking hardcore man. Within a few years he and his family were buying clothes for all the homeless they could find. This is Jason Williams. They talk about his two half sisters and going to drive kids to school while he goes to practice and he still graduated.

I'm sure he was really doing his school work too. I'm sure nobody was doing it for him. He said that basketball's funniest man has become its most giving star. He said, I'm no Mother Teresa. No, that's true. Oh boy, but he's making all these appearances. But also, he's got nothing else to do.

Does anybody else remember that? He's not working right now. He's not playing and he do. Does anybody else remember that? He's got, he's not working right now. He's not playing, yeah. He's not playing and he has so much fucking money. He said he spent $32,000 annually to send four students through St. John's or the $20,000 he gave to the workers there. They're talking about each thing he did.

He gave to pediatric aides. He brought in over $100,000 by selling tickets to play his nine hole golf course all of the holes located on one gigantic green They said there's a presence about him where he can walk through a crowd and touch everyone in the room That's normally bad for guys in crime and sports. We don't hear that Jesus walking through and touch everybody in the fucking room He is the antithesis of being self-centered. He's directed in every way. This is fucking

hilarious because he's such a dick later. Such a dick. They said without the 750 grand that he donated to clubs, they couldn't offer these after school learning programs for thousands of kids who use the facility daily. He said, I'm a good guy because I'm scared. It's a sin to be selfish and I don't want to go to hell. Okay. So he doesn't play in 99.90. Not only is he not there for opening day, he's not there for any day.

He plays zero fucking games. Yes, that year. Not gonna work. He's placed on, Jason Williams' return placed on hold by mid-season. They said that he had significant weakness in his right leg and it sets back a possible return date until at least early March and he doesn't ever because if you break your

right leg that in a jump that he was coming down on that one right usually when you jump and you come down you're coming down on both feet yeah but it's a good point and it, you're coming down on both feet, ideally. Yeah, but that's a good point. And it wouldn't matter. But if you're coming down on one, it's gonna be your dominant leg. Yeah, I suppose, but really I think it matters where Marbury was more than where he landed.

Yeah, because if he landed on Marbury, then whether it was the up leg or the down leg. Yeah, right. The net said what we're gonna do now is to change his rehabilitation regimen to focus on strengthening his leg. They said he hasn't made much progress in that area in the past month, maybe because we focus so much on cardiovascular efforts to get him ready to practice again. He could probably run all day right now, but he can't jump off that bad leg.

And he needs to jump is what he needs to do. So they said the overwhelming feeling is that Jason Williams will return successfully, the general manager said. He said, Jason, because of his optimism, believed he could accelerate that timetable, and maybe because we were looking forward to having him back, we accepted that optimistic point of view.

They said, seeing him work out last week, you could see that he just wasn't ready. So Marbury said his presence along with his rebounding and his energy means a great deal for our team but if he's not going to be here and play the way he knows how to play he's not really gonna be effective. So useless. There you go. February hoping to return by March and they showed he has 70% strength in his left and his right leg. It's 70% strong as his left leg. Not good at all.

He said, I thought it was higher than 70% to be honest. I think I could play at 40%. Now I'm waiting for the next doctor to speak to my doctor and I know what my doctor is going to say. He's going to say, go. No, it's not. Say, go, go jump all over that weak leg with your 270 pound body.

Yeah. And guys coming around. I want a break, come right back and pay more of my bills. And it's gonna be, I need a beach house really, I'm looking for that. I have no summer home, this is ridiculous. I'm a good doctor. I've seen Jason's house, I want one like that.

Yeah, Jesus Christ. So March 9th, 2000, he passes the test, the strength test, and will return soon, it says. He's ready to go. Jason said, the break messed me up. He said, I think if there wasn't a break, they'd say the hell with it, let him go. I don't think that he can just jump into a game, the coach said. The worst thing is to jump into a game and not be prepared and not be prepared and look bad. We'll have to have the five practice days, then the decision will be made if he's game ready.

So that's March 9th. By March 23rd, he's undergoing foot surgery. So he's done. Now it's the foot. Yep, he broke a bone in his foot while practicing. Doctors inserted a screw in the break and it's the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot. And now, by the way, he's almost 32 at this point. Holy shit. Big guys with surgically repaired legs don't get better with age.

And that's his other foot. That's his left foot now. Yeah, that's his left foot. So he's all fucked up. Now he's gotta put, well, that'll strengthen up his right leg because you're gonna have to favor it. So he probably broke that one by favoring the right leg. That's maybe. So he said he hasn't, he was just doing practice to see if he could come back and that's how it happened. March 26, 2000. He said he was embarrassed about the fractured left foot. So he was just very embarrassed. He said it wasn't any of that.

He tripped over someone. Oh, another trip over someone. He said, I mean tripping over a rookie's foot. That's how it happened in practice. He said, I love the game. I want to play again. I will play again. He said, until this happened, I was really bouncy.

I felt great. Well, I was maybe one day away from playing and then I got hurt I was more embarrassed than anything. I worked so hard to get back and then landing like that. It's embarrassing My father says everything happens for a reason. I don't know. Maybe it was God telling me I wasn't ready Well, God could have whispered it to me rather than making me look like an asshole. Rather than shouting it to everyone, stripping over a rookie and face planning on the fucking court. So he said that he has no plans to retire. Contrary to a published report, he said retire.

I'd be the dumbest man in America because he has $86 million left on his contract. Still coming to him. If he retires, he can't have that. But if he acts like he's trying to come. If he retires he can't have that but if he you know acts like he's trying to come back he can have every dime of that. May 9th 2000 is his first book. Yes he has more than one book. His sense of humor is on display they said in Loose Balls is the name of it which is the same name as the ABA's, like the history of the ABA, which is a much better book, I'm sure. So he admits to many mistakes as a college player and later as a pro with Phoenix, he describes himself as a loudmouth, a hard drinking bench warmer with an attitude problem.

His frequent fights and mishaps made the Suns and Sixers, well, well the sons never had him, but has eventually settled down and now devotes much of his time to charities. So it's about what a great guy he is now. Yeah. Here, the book's greatest asset, they say, is his sense of humor, which is evident in his unusual view of life as a player and in the dozens of funny stories he tells.

He writes that as a boy, he was more afraid of a beating from his grandma, Elvira. Well. Really? He didn't know if he was more afraid of a beating or turned on by her cleavage, he couldn't tell. One of the two.

Trying to figure it out. Do you know who she was being? Elvira, yes I do, yeah. That's fucking awesome. That's, yeah, because that helps you, right? Yeah. Yeah. Seriously.

How? It's... I can honestly say I don't care Yeah, because that helps you, right? Yeah. Yeah. Seriously. How? I can honestly say I don't care who any 65 year old lady fucks of any kind. I don't see her as 65. I see her as 75. 75? In 1985.

She was fucking older then too. I think she's like 75 now, because in the 80s she was like interlaced. This was last chance I think for her. Yeah, she's certainly elderly and she's a redhead, weird. Weird, yeah, strange. He said that an alvira sister, Edith, was even worse. So I guess his great aunt.

If she thought young Jason did something wrong, Edith would turn the Bible by asking it questions. Huh? What? Oh my God, this is fucking nuts. They do like the, like the arm test in Arulo, Nebraska. Turn the Bible. They would, she would ask the Bible questions like is Jason bad? And did he do this? And they said when, if the Bible moved, when she mentioned his name, she took it as an indication of his guilt

and would beat the shit out of him. So she knew that he did things wrong and she would fuck with him. She would torture this poor kid. She made him think that God wanted him to get the shit beaten out of him often. By a woman named Elvira. Man, they said, although the book jumps from subject to subject it's short paragraph style keeps the readers attention in other words it's written by a fourth grader for other fourth graders yeah Williams writes that when he

retires he wants to be remembered as a former wild man who became a good man so he's got a marriage that he had it's five months old in May of 20 of 2000. And that is over with. It is. It's already done. Kelly Batiste, Batiste, a model, I don't know. Yeah. Another model or the same model?

Another model. No, no, different model, different model. Yeah, that's NBA players fuck models. Look at all their kids. That's why all their kids are, they all look the same. Yeah. They all look exactly the same because they all fucked a model who looked exactly the same.

So. Yeah. That's it. Yeah, they look exactly the same because they all fucked a model who looked exactly the same. So Yeah, that's it. He's been playing Hanging out at nightclubs. They said there's even talk that he had quote Has the hots for Oprah Winfrey I don't know man. I figure if I put my money with her money, I feel, you know, that'll make me want to fuck her You know what I'm saying? She's rich Man, I got the hots for Oprah Winfrey's money now Meanwhile, a friend said that him and his wife haven't even officially split but they're not happy. So he's like I'll fuck Oprah. Yeah

The next week's National Enquirer claims that Williams has been trying to set up a lunch date with Oprah. One pal of Williams said, quote, Jason has had a crush on Oprah forever. No, he hasn't. He says apparently he was like, he's watched her. He's like, damn, I like big Oprah and skinny Oprah. Fuck, I don't know. Damn. It's like getting two women in one.

You know what I'm saying? Sometimes she's going to be heavy. Sometimes she's going what I'm saying? Sometimes. She's gonna be heavy Sometimes she's gonna be thin, but she's always gonna be rich. This is fucking great My god Oprah's doing with her head her hair has never matched her head ever And I definitely don't know what 70 year old ladies do with their hair never mind their cleavage. I have no idea Yeah, she's a little like that too But he but they also say it seems to be sort of a running joke another friend said he admires her but there's no romance

He did he did send her a couple dozen roses after she had him on her show to promote his book just to say Thank you, which that's normal. That's customary Now he and his wife got married on December 27th, this is May 20th, mind you, at his 60 acre estate. He has 60 acres of New Jersey. 60 acres, Jersey. New Jersey? New Jersey, yep.

Wow. He said, the star Jason Williams is not only one of basketball's best rebounders, but one of the game's funniest personalities. His sense of humor is on display in loose balls. Oh my God. That's what he's talking about. His sense of humor. Burr he writes paragraph to paragraph. Burr he writes short tiny stories about fucking beating people up, I suppose. I don't even fucking know. A little bit more on loose balls here.

I guess he's sort of retired at this point. Yeah, without being actually retired. Yeah, now this is intended to be a humorous perspective on his life in the NBA, but later readers note, somebody went through it with like a magic marker and found out that the book contains nine separate episodes in which in which he has behaved recklessly with guns. Nine times nine in his book in his own book that he's written he committed those to words and published them. It's and it happens a lot do you remember the Wayne Corbett incident the Jets wide receiver Wayne Corbett he wrote that he almost that Jason Williams almost shot him a pair or Jason Williams wrote that he almost, Wayne Corbett. He wrote that he almost, that Jason Williams almost shot him a pair, or Jason Williams

wrote that he almost shot Wayne Corbett while firing his shotgun at his skeet shooting range. So he almost ended that. He said, when I fired the gun, it must've been just a few inches from Wayne's face, cause the noise knocked him out cold. That's the concussion. That's how fucking close it was. How do you not notice a wide receiver there? You fired a shotgun and a NFL wide receiver went down. The panic must have gone in. Oh my God, I just killed Wendrick. Somehow he's not bleeding, but I fucking killed

him. Oh, how close would you have to fire it to knock somebody out with the concussion of it? I mean I've shot one holding it and I didn't knock, you know what I mean? You have to be like right next to his ear. Holy hell. How would you not notice him there? Right. There's no way. Why would your finger be on that trigger? Before you shoot a gun maybe make sure no one's head is within three inches of the barrel. How about that? Make sure there's no wide receivers by the barrel. The side of the barrel must have been resting against his head. He was using it to steady. He was using the head to steady the gun like people do against a tree sometimes.

That's what he was doing. Hold on Wayne, stay right there. Let me put this on your shoulder. Holy fuck, that is wild. On his 65 acre estate he built a skeet shooting range that he often allowed guests to use in loose balls he told tells all about the story of um i guess now there's another story i don't know if this is the same one and because this one they talk about a shotgun but here they talk about it's being a desert eagle a 50 cal desert eagle which is wild and jason williams said it was a

desert eagle one of the most powerful handguns in the world And he said at one point he looked behind him to check out a noise Then turned back to the targets not realizing that Wayne Corbett was in front of him picking up a cartridge Wayne why would you do that? And why are you not making sure it's clear still when you're turning around? He said he fired the gun so close to her Betts face that he was knocked unconscious and was covered in gunpowder He had fucking powder burns on him. Like if you kill somebody He is so lucky that that missed at all. That's what I mean Jason Seahorn was there by the way the Giants cornerback. Yeah, he was so freaked out, thought Wayne was dead,

he just ran away. He literally just ran into the woods, like, ah, I don't wanna be here, cause Wayne's dead. He ran into this, took off out of there. How many fucking professional athletes are here? They're all, everybody from every team is here. They're all hanging out

Yeah, they all come through New York and he's bored. He's got all this money He's a come by my giant estate and shoot guns and do crazy shit And they're like, okay sure he's like, I don't know what the fuck his deal is in another incident. He threatened Manute Bulls uncle with a gun too Wow. I don don't know what his beef was with Manute Bulls uncle. Yeah, I've seen two bulls and they are both giant men. They're both huge. Yeah, everyone in his family's over seven feet tall. They're all giant people.

And they've been through enough, the bulls, I think. You know where they're from? What the people be? Holy fuck. So 99, 2000, while he's doing all of this stuff, he's making $12,375,000. Finally June 20, he retires in 2000 after the season. I'm sure he makes a deal here with the team.

He came 14 months after he breaks his right leg, decided that it's never going to happen again. So that's that. His retirement may have a silver lining it says. If the Nets can't have Jason Williams in their lineup, a months old reality, the Nets made official Wednesday. At least they would like to have a consolation prize from the NBA in something called

a disabled player exception. Well that's a good one, yeah. Nets president, yeah, they're talking about how we've petitioned the league office to give us an exception and they'll have that answered in due time. They say they'll have to investigate, so they're trying to get something, like on the salary cap basically. So give them a $3.8 million window that they can work with.

Even if they still have to pay it, at least we don't count that money because it's going to somebody that's not playing. Yeah, at least we can get another player because right now he's just taking up all this cap space that's not helping at all. So yeah, Jason Williams said this has been a hard choice for me, but I know from the pain in my knee and what my physicians have told me that my injuries won't allow me to return. My experience with the Nets is one I will always remember, signing a giant deal and

then not earning it. It's just amazing. It's just. Not having to do a goddamn thing for it. I'll tell you what, man, it's just, it feels so fucking good. He said this, by the way, from a news conference at a charity softball game he was hosting.

He's like, I'm hitting cleanup out here, but I can't get any rebounds. Willis Reed said, just stand here for two minutes with him and you'll be laughing until your stomach hurts. I believe it. All right. That's interesting here.

He said that, oh, they're talking about Willis Reed and they're talking about Jason Williams. Okay. He was playing, I guess, he said he was playing with a broken thumb anyway, so who knows? He said though, when he broke his thumb, he wanted to play the next day, because he told them, I've got to play, I've got to earn this money. Can't be sitting out here with this bullshit here.

So anyway, he's fucked at this point. I guess not fucked, he's got lots of money, he doesn't have to go to work. He's doing great. I really wish I could do that. That sounds awesome Don't you this be paid 12 million dollars a year to do nothing? Yeah, that'd be a fucking amazing. So Yeah, he's all excited. He's talking about

Also, um his charity shit that he's gonna do They said that on a visit two summers ago I pulled into who knew estate, that's his estate, to find him sitting in a lounge chair on his outdoor basketball court. He was filming an NBA entertainment segment on Clyde Frazier. His broken right leg was elevated in the air. Williams wore one of Frazier's slick old 70s top hats and holding Clyde's famous guide to cool. He said, did you know there's a cool

way and a wrong way to try to catch a fly? Jason asked me. Here, look, you've got to swing your arm in a circle to get him, not just stab at him. That's the cool way to do it, according to Clyde Frazier. As the producers prepared for the next segment, the two of us stood in the hot sun trying to catch flies on a summer day. It had to be the most ridiculous sight in the world, but it was just an afternoon with Jason Williams. A little later that day we were sitting on the patio overlooking his property. He was unshaven and a little depressed. As soon as he started to feel sorry for his fate, he stopped himself and remembered Linda and Laura, his sisters he lost to AIDS. By the way, he found out the one sister, it wasn't

cirrhosis, it was AIDS. They just said it was cirrhosis. Both of them died of AIDS. By the way, he found out the one sister, it wasn't cirrhosis, it was AIDS. They just said it was cirrhosis. Both of them died of AIDS. Yeah. He said, I think about my sisters and I remember how lucky I am. I know there's a chance I'll never play again, but that'll be hard for me. I think I was put here for more than basketball. I know I was. There's a lot more work for me to do. And he says that the Nets started on the way with Kenyon Martin on Wednesday night. Jason Williams woke up in Phoenix searching for a new winter home. Now he wants to be in Phoenix. He would have moved away from the whole country if he had to go there. Now he's going. And they said in the article, didn't he hate Phoenix? Who knows? When he looked out the window this morning, he stared over the desert. That bomb had dropped. official Jason Williams has gone for good with the nets the team picked up a good player Wednesday night

But they didn't replace him. They'll never do that. Never. How could you possibly replace a guy who was very? minimally deal here is a high the softball game He's doing a softball game with in syncync and everything. Is that right? Oh yeah, oh yeah. InSync, one of the nation's hottest recording groups, this is July 26, 2000 by the way, will headline the Jason Williams Celebrity Softball Challenge to be held at Riverfront Stadium in Newark. Holy shit, that is funny. They have the Jason Williams Foundation. It will also benefit pediatric aides, AIDS the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's disease all these motherfuckers So besides in sync you're also gonna get penny Marshall. Oh

Same crowd likes both of them, right? No She's the she's the the lady from hocus-pocus That's what that's true probably Oakley, Marcus Shekinberg, Kylie Bax, Fat Joe, let's see, Andrew Hsu, Kendall Gill, Stephon Marbury, and of course, Danny Aiello and Joe Piscopo. Because obviously- He fucking loves them. Loves them so much. That is fucking hilarious. So we'll end it on this Sunday, November 25th, 2001 Jason Williams charged with pushing an officer Oh, he's working for NBC Sports at this point and he's charged with pushing a police officer after an argument at a bar

Jesus Christ. He was charged with obstruction here After an argument at a bar, Jesus Christ, he was charged with obstruction here. Patrolman Roger Schneider responded to a commotion at the bar about 1.50 a.m. and a sergeant said the sergeant did not know if Williams was involved in the original argument, but said that Williams pushed Schneider twice during the investigation. Police say he shoved an officer in the parking lot. Williams reportedly acknowledged he may have, quote, accidentally pushed an officer, you know, more than once. Perhaps he got in my way. Jesus Christ.

So the NBA will continue to use him as a studio analyst, even though he was arrested for this. He does, he is charged with obstructing and pleads guilty and will pay a, you sir, may fuck off, $48 for disorderly conduct. To shove a cop $48. To shove a cop. That's amazing.

Wow. That's a pretty good deal. And he said, quote, you will never see me out at 1.15 in the morning again. Okay. Let's see if he sticks to that. What do you say here? I'm self-imposed prison. Well, definitely.

Yeah, self-imposed. Ten years ago, that would have been a nightmare. We'll find that out next week. We'll find out boy if he actually sticks to that or not because Jason Williams. He's now retired that's his whole career from now on it's all fuckery and Murder actually as well. So we'll talk all about that next week If you enjoy the show tell the fucking world about it Yeah, get on Apple podcasts or whatever fucking wherever you listen. Spotify

this one now. We don't goddamn care. Leave a review. It helps a lot. Really does. Tell your friends too because that helps. Post on social media. Do all that shit. Speaking of social media, follow us on social media. At Crime and Sports, you can do that. Also head over to shutupandgivemurder.com. First of all, merchandise. All your tickets for live shows. September 20th, Small Town Murder Live in Minneapolis at the State Theater. We have the virtual live show for Halloween and it's available for two weeks after that to watch, purchase, do whatever you want with. Like we said, shove it up your ass if you want to.

Enjoy, do all of that. Shutupandgivemurder.com, patreon.com slash crime and sports as well. We're gonna talk about this week, anybody $5 a month or above, you get hundreds of episodes of the back catalog of bonus shit, new ones every other week, one crime and sports, one small town murder. This week for crime and sports, we're gonna talk about a man named Pudd who is the first, I guess, performance

enhancing drug user in Major League Baseball in 1889. Wow. Not a new phenomenon. We'll talk about all the things that athletes tried to do over the years for that. The first man to use a pad was a pud? Was a pud. And Jesus, I hate puns.

Fuck. Ugh. Is that a pun? That's not a pun. It's fucking wordplay, and it's god awful. It's not, it's just fascinating. It's something your uncle would say. No, it's an uncle joke.

You're a professional comedian. I'm an uncle. You're a professional comedian. First guy to use a ped was a pun. Oh, God, Jesus Christ. Your Aunt Sally would say that. So the first guy to use a ped was a pun? Hehehehehe.

It's fascinating. It's fascinating. And it a ped was a pun? Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe people used to do to each other. You really did it wrong. It's fucking wild. They were doing shit crazy. So check all of that out as you may and you also get a shout out at the end of the show which is coming up in just a second. As a matter of fact, Jimmy, why don't you hit me with the names of the best fucking people in the world who aren't Puds or Peds or Pedos or any other goddamn thing. Hit me with these names right fucking,

I said they're not Pedos. Jesus. Right now, hit me with them. and our zoa Noah Noah's a male he's off to college Hey, his mom's really proud of him. He's a graduation good for you Don't get any STDs. Yes Just don't yeah, just don't have. Be careful. No, no, have sex. Carefully. Nancy Bat, she's 10 years cancer free. Have wild sex.

Have sex, you'll be embarrassed to tell your spouse later about, tell it that way. You do that too, Nancy. Congratulations. 10 years later. Nancy, get out there and fuck your little tail off, would you? Thank you. Kevin Hoydahl, Jessica Bochesney.

Bochesney, maybe. Bochesney? Bo-chesney. Jessica Bochesny. Bochesny maybe, Bochesny? Bochesny? Jessica, thank you. Amy Barton, Melanie with no last name, and also Zach Steiner. Thank you guys so much for everything you do. Thank you. You're amazing. Other producers this week are Peyton Meadows, Liz Vasquez, Gary Howard, Janice Hill, Sophie

Content, I think that's what it is, Content, Raheem Cannon, thank you so much. Jennifer Carroll, Krista Hobart, Brittany Loberg, Laurie Favada, Pedro with no last name, Holly Kaser Seigel, Seagull maybe? Nick Forche, Forch, Forch, F-O-E-R, Ferch? I don't know. Arlo Edwards, Jody Kimmel. Spent enough time on that, I guess. Kerry Carr, Catherine Koester, Keister, Judy Griffin, Vicki Hay, Maria Brown, Pookie,

Suzy Pookie, Lavender, Rosier, Chelsea with no last name, Ryan Sland, Sarah with no last name, Soulkiller7, Eternal, Eddie Thompson, Evie, Evie Danger, Sarah with no last name, Soulkiller7 Eternal, Eddie Thompson, Evie? Evie, Evie, Evie Danger, Michael Blee, nope that's just B. It's B with a shitload of E's. Alright, Mike, now you know who you are. Chris Smith Hedges, Genevieve Howell Brody with no last name, Justine Tidrington, Emily Miller, Justin Seward, Christopher Albate, Jorian Stuckey, Ashley Groundhog

for breakfast, Mustafa. Not the one for lunch. Vanessa Simpson, RRTACCS, NPS. I don't know what any of those things are. I imagine she's incredible. Hopefully that stands for something. They're probably all degrees in something. Gwen Clark, Ashley Winters, Victoria Cummings, Shell with no last name, Chris Conley, Trey Hopefully that stands for something. They're probably all degrees in something.

Gwen Clark, Ashley Winters, Victoria Cummings, Shell with no last name, Chris Conley, Trey Bivens, Donna Tunks, M. Dublow, don't do that, Dublow, I don't know, Carly Williams, Marlena Goff, Abla Alkweevin, Alkweevin? Al Rawls. Brian Scott. You got it. Laurie would know last name. Rachel Vaughn, Donnie Dennis, Christina Mayer, Jess Landers, Amy Sousa, Adriana Morado.

John would know last name, Mary Ledane, Brittany Young McDonald, Sam Richardson, Ryan Killeen, Tanya Chaffins, Nancy with no last name, Samantha Rourke, Jake, nope, that's Jack Fivecoat, Ronda with no last name, Sam Ashby, what is Sam Ashby, is that a thing? I don't know, Jacob and Krishan Konkling. It's that guy or girl? I don't know Jacob and Krishan Conkling Katie Novick Novick Jackie Mitchell Jordan brought it brought a game

Krista Davis Phoebe Oberhaus Jenny Talia Jeremy Evans Anna Fullerton Kathy with no last name Kristi Martin and I fucking hope it's the real we hope so Incredible Curtis Monty. She's so rad. Oh, Carrie Joubert. Yep, that's Carrie Joubert. Brandon Oliver. Jess Gilmer. Shay Lynn.

Angela Nguyen. Tanya with no last name. Angel with no last name. Paula with no last name. Tasha Leggett. Melan Con-Emily. All right. Dolores McKintrick. McKintrick, Dana B., Jeremy

Young, Carian with no last name. Carry on maybe? Carry on. We shall. Whitney Lindsay, Hurricane Lolo, Wes Baldwin, Monica with no last name, Skogen Hymer, Will Cushman, Jennifer Murillo, Sarah Case, Maria Ferrante, Ali Koslowski, Chad Cheeto Dusks, Allie Blair, Kelly Lockett, Billy Tobler, Marcella Courtney, Lisa Breitfeller, Hannah Hartbarger, Aaron- The stuff you give your dogs every six months? For worms? Hannah Hartbarger? Hartbarger, golly. Aaron. The stuff you give your dogs every six months? For worms? For worms, yeah.

Come on, dogs. Easter worm medication. Gather around. Aaron Cooper, KG. K with the last name of a G. James Lipka. Ross Knight. Lauren Yamans.

Blair Bryant. Maybe Bear's Kid, Mimi with no last name, Lachlan Dunacliff, Michael Smith, Tattoo with no last name, Julia Campuzano, Keeks Le Geek, Shane Lang, Ash with no last name, Paula Ann Lumaad, Dan with no last name, Lydia Griffith, Paula G, Alyssa, Kaitlyn Russell, Ashley, Lauren Crager, Robert Stevens, Jason Singer, Heather Joy Mitchell, Natasha Sterbiak, Morgan C. Dennis Angleart, Angleart, Michelle with no last name, Chrissy Delense, uh, Delense maybe, Shelly Scott, Jesse Johnson, Amanda Sklar, Patty Perry, Holbrook Tiffany, G stole, just stole, Guy stole. It's the letter G and then stole. All right.

Jackie Caldwell, uh, John Zvensky, Morgan Barnes then Vensky, Vensky, Morgan, Barnes, Cindy Tavern, Tankers, Leve, Tankers. This is a fucking nightmare. Veronica, this is my nightmare came to life. Veronica Gonzalez, Ricky Watson, Stefan Erasmus, the Pets upon. Jeff Kohlmeyer, Amy Clancy, Tyler Doan, Dumbbell Blonde, Sean Doherty, Leann Cook, Martha McIntosh, Miriam Usmani, Matt Hewson, This Is Me.

That's their name. This is me. This is me. Isabella, this is me not knowing how to read. Casey Iona, Cam with no last name, Paul C, D, Trevor, Adrian Neville, Jess Maskeleuk, what? Moscow, M-O-S-K, Moscow, I'm spelling it, just found it out. Kayla Kina, Kina, Callie Lumioni, Pat West, I can do that, Alex Reynolds-Henderson, Jason Webb, Carrie Hickman, Karen McCord, Jay Rubin, Brandon Sherman, Zachary Steiner, Jessica J.C., Rach with just

an H, Rach H, Aaron McFarland, L. Brown P-8, don't do that to me. Jennifer Richetti, Josh M, Essence Boykins, Teresha. Teresha? It's not Teresa, that's Teresha, right? LaRue, Haley Hogan, and obviously all of our patrons, thank you all so much. Thank you everybody, you wonderful, fantastic, crazy, brilliant bastards. We love you so much. You're following me constantly and I can't thank you enough. Fuck yeah. Thank you for doing that. Thank you for doing all that you do for us.

Honestly, we could not do the show without you, obviously, because it would be two idiots yelling about shit that no one cares about. Thank you for hanging out with us. Thank you for doing that. Keep doing that week after week. If you want to find us on social media, shut up and givememurder.com, drop down menu, go there. Keep hanging out with us.

Live from the Crime and Sports studios we will see you next week. If you like Crime and Sports you can listen early ad-free now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.