Robert Williams III and the legacy of a role player

Robert Williams III’s tenure with the Boston Celtics started on shaky floor. Drafted by then-Celtics GM Danny Ainge with the twenty seventh general decide, the younger middle infamously missed his introductory press convention with the group, and shortly thereafter, missed a flight to Boston for his first follow with the group. Taken alongside together with his shock slide down the primary spherical of the NBA Draft — many noticed him as a possible top-ten expertise after his freshman season at Texas A&M — this shortly grew to become some extent of concern within the Boston media sphere.

First impressions proved to be mistaken when it got here to the athletic younger middle, and went on to spawn the playful nickname that grew to become the favored touchstone of his tenure in Boston. Often misconstrued, the “Timelord” identify was by no means meant as a mockery of Williams’ preliminary tardiness, however fairly, extra of a kayfabe clarification for it — laughing with him, not at him. A Timelord isn’t late, younger Celtics fan. He arrives exactly when he means to.

The nickname took on new that means when Williams hit the courtroom. It utilized properly to his quick-twitch athleticism and penchant for blocking leap pictures, as if he have been bending time itself to get his hand on the ball. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than it discovered a complete new life from there. What began as a working gag between a small group of Twitter customers was finally being repeated by Doris Burke on nationwide TV. Speak about constructing a status.

Now, the Timelord has modified time zones. Shipped off to Portland within the three-team commerce that introduced Jrue Vacation to Boston, Williams has joined a younger, retooling Path Blazers group and his profession as a Celtic has, at the least for now, come to a detailed. His 5 years in Boston have been spent as a creating participant oozing with potential, however the realization of that potential will occur elsewhere, because the contract extension he signed with the Celtics in 2021 will maintain him in Portland by means of his age-28 season.

With just a few weeks of separation from the commerce, we are able to now ask: trying again, what will we make of a participant like Williams?

On the courtroom, the image is fairly clear. Williams is a one-of-one athlete on the middle place, a strolling pogo keep on with jaw-dropping vertical potential who thrilled Boston crowds together with his prodigious skills on the rim. There’s nothing fairly like watching a wholesome Williams go to work within the pick-and-roll. No matter how dangerous the lob go could be – and the Celtics have actually thrown some stinkers in recent times – nothing ever appeared fairly out of attain for his 7-foot-6 wingspan and 40-inch vertical leap. He might very properly be probably the most exceptional athletic expertise to ever don a Boston uniform.

These instruments manifested on the opposite finish of the courtroom, as properly. Hardly inconvenienced by the constraints of gravity, Williams was one of many NBA’s most prolific and thrilling shot-blockers from the second he arrived on the scene. No shot is ever utterly protected from him, not even from behind the three-point arc, the place he developed a penchant for startling would-be sharpshooters on close-outs. Early in his profession, Williams went by means of the standard trials and tribulations confronted by younger bigs within the NBA, combating positioning and foul bother. By the group’s run to the NBA Finals, although, he had absolutely blossomed right into a professional All-Protection caliber weapon.

Williams’ expertise has all the time been plain, however retaining that expertise on the courtroom proved problematic. The opposite facet of his draft day fall was a critical concern concerning his long-term well being and sturdiness. Williams was identified with popliteal artery entrapment syndrome, an artery illness, in each legs, the primary in a prolonged chain of bodily issues which have restricted his potential to take care of a presence on the basketball courtroom. He performed greater than half of an NBA common season simply twice in his Celtics profession.

The 2021-22 season stung probably the most. Within the midst of a breakout yr and climbing the ranks of Defensive Participant of the Yr hopefuls for his half within the Celtics’ beautiful midseason turnaround, Williams tore his meniscus in March of 2022. The harm value him the rest of the common season, and although he returned for the group’s run to the NBA Finals, he solely fleetingly performed as much as his customary stage. The implications of the harm and its therapy lingered into the next season, as a clean-up process on the knee led to additional restoration, and contributed to a 2022-23 marketing campaign that noticed him seem in simply 35 common season video games.

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Desires of a homegrown Boston championship lastly met their finish this offseason, as Brad Stevens and the entrance workplace recognized the necessity for structural adjustments to the roster. The opposite Williams, Grant, was the primary to go, joined shortly thereafter by Marcus Good, the longest tenured Celtic and beating coronary heart of the group for the previous near-decade. Williams’ commerce completes the restructuring, strengthening the Celtics of immediately with an infusion of star-level expertise, however at the price of the Celtics of the previous.

Williams didn’t become an All-NBA expertise like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, nor was he as integral to the group’s tradition and id as Marcus Good. He didn’t make an All-Star group in Boston, and the quantity 44 received’t be hanging within the rafters together with his identify on it. While you write all of it out, his fingerprint on Celtics historical past is fairly small.

That’s removed from all there may be, although. In a sports activities market with such historical past — and, subsequently, such lofty expectations — it’s simple to get misplaced within the need for accolades. Robert Williams III might finally have had an incomplete profession in Boston, however his time right here was nonetheless memorable from the outset. He made his stamp on this period of Celtics basketball one alley-oop slam, one blocked jumper at a time, residing as much as a exceptional nickname in a method that solely he might. Lengthy reside the Timelord.