An all-Deron Williams blog
DALLAS — On All-Star eve, an all-Deron Williams blog …
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Once he found out he was headed to Utah, all Deron Williams wanted was to be himself.
“That’s what I said from the start: I’m not trying to be John Stockton,” said Williams, who on Sunday — in his Dallas hometown area — will play in his first NBA All-Star Game.
Williams — who making his own name, with one Olympic gold medal already in his pocket — didn’t really give thought to the idea of stepping into the shoes of retired Jazz point Stockton’s shoes until he got drafted by the Jazz.
Even then Utah’s current point didn’t figure it would that big of a deal.
Just about every NBA franchise has the retired number of great players hanging in the rafters, right?
“I didn’t think about it,” Williams said, “to tell you the truth.
“And then all the questions started.”
It didn’t take Williams long from that point to learn just how much of a huge deal, especially in Utah, it really is.
Because Stockton is just not another star with a retired number.
He has a statue outside of the arena in which he played, which — save for the likes of teammate Karl Malone and one Michael Jordan — is not something most NBA retirees can say.
Still, Williams stands by his initial sense on the subject. He’s not trying, in any form or fashion, to be John Stockton.
“Nobody will ever ‘replace’ him,” Williams said. “He is who he is. He’s a hall-of-famer. He’s the all-time leader in assists and steals — and I’m not sure anybody will ever break those records. And nobody’s ever going to forget him. I’m just going to be me.”
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Much has been made of the fact Williams, selected No. 3 overall in the 2005 NBA Draft, started only 47 games during his rookie season in Utah.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan recently explained.
Again.
“Some many guys come into this league that are drafted with the first four or five picks” he said, and they’re thrown out there usually with a bad team and they never have any idea of what it’s like to sit on the bench and then have to come in.
“I’ve felt like that (not starting full-time as a rookie) helps guy.”
Malone, Sloan pointed out, didn’t start in five of the 81 games he started as a rookie. And Stockton, playing behind All-Star Rickey Green initially, didn’t start full-time until his fourth NBA season.
And, as the Jazz coach pointed out, “You know, he (Stockton) was a pretty good player.
“It wasn’t anything malicious,” Sloan added. “I just thought it might help him later on in his career. Probably it didn’t.”
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And finally …
He acknowledges that many not know it, but Williams, wife Amy and their three children make their home year-round in Salt Lake City.
It’s not necessarily a permanent thing, depending largely on how his career in the future unfolds.
But having sold his house in the Dallas area — where his mother and brother still live — Utah is the place for now.
The heart, though, remains in Big D for this West Virginia native.
“I think Dallas will always be my home” he said. “That’s where I grew up.”
Why not return there in the offseason, then?
First starters, his oldest daughter is in school now. Beyond that, though, consider his love for the clubs.
“It’s too hot in the summer (in Dallas) to golf,” Williams said.
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