I (heart) Deron Williams' black-and-gold outfit

When I saw Deron Williams come out of shootaround this morning decked out from neck to toe in Pittsburgh Steelers garb – including a scarf, shirt, sweats and shoes – I thought one of two things had to be the case.
Either he is a huge Steelers fan or the former Dallas resident lost a huge bet.
Either way, Ben Roethlisberger and I will concur that he looked AWESOME!
And I say that as a completely objective journalist (who just coincidentally happens to own a Steelers license plate holder, Rubix Cube, calendar, pendants, key-chain Steeler player, a used-yesterday-afternoon kitchen apron with the beloved diamonds, jerseys of Jerome Bettis, Hines Ward and Tommy Maddox, and several other black-and-gold items).
Being fairly new to the Jazz beat, I’d never realized that Williams, a West Virginia native, indeed is a Steelers fan. Knowing that he grew up in Dallas, I mentioned to him that I was quite surprised (I left out the “pleasantly” part).
His response: “Yep.”
Or it might’ve been: “Yup.”
It’s hard to tell the difference sometimes.
Either way – and even if he wasn’t in the mood to chit-chat about Big Ben and company – I thought it was the sharpest outfit I’ve ever seen him wear. I even told him it was “beautiful gear.”
“Appreciate it,” he said.
This story would get really cool if Williams had then walked down the tunnel and thrown a Coke and his jersey to a young fan.
He didn’t.
Maybe next week after the Steelers take care of some Baltimore biz.
Incidentally, another Dallas guy on the team didn’t share my fond feelings for what Williams was rocking. C.J. Miles kinda shook his head, smiled and groaned when I brought up his teammate’s attire.
“Yeah, that black and gold, I’m not too fond of that,” he said.
He wasn’t at all impressed that Williams even had black and gold shoes on.
Now I’m just wondering if I should wear the Ward, the Bettis or the rare Maddox jersey to the game tonight.

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On another football-related note:
Kyle Korver, an avid New York Giants fan, said he turned his phone off Sunday after his G-Men lost to the Eagles, who play, of course, in his former NBA town of Philadelphia.
He was not, by the way, sporting any Giants gear on Monday.
Who knows when/if he’ll return phone calls or read text messages with trash talk from the city of brotherly love.