Kelly Williams American Basketball Player Born in 1982

Early life

Kelly Williams was born on 7 February 1982 in Detroit, Michigan. His father was American and his mother is Filipina, and he is the youngest of three children. He went to Martin Luther King High School and played in the Detroit Public School League. In his final season there he was co-captain and was named to the all-district and all-state teams, averaging 35 points and 14 rebounds a game. His team reached the state semifinals that year.

Career

College. The De La Salle program in the Philippines had recruited him, but Williams chose to stay near home and enrolled at Oakland University, a Division I school, where he played small forward for the Golden Grizzlies from 2000 to 2004. In his first season he scored 18 points in a win over the University of Michigan on 17 November 2000, an upset that stayed the high point of his time there. He led the team in rebounding as a freshman, appeared in every game in his second and third seasons, and was among the team leaders in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals as a senior.

Philippines. After his college years he built a reputation in the Philippines through exhibition games with the national squad. In the Philippine Basketball League he played for Magnolia, averaging 17.1 points and 12.8 rebounds, and the team won the 2005-06 Heroes' Cup. He entered the 2006 PBA Draft, and Sta. Lucia used the first overall pick on him, ahead of Arwind Santos. The choice drew attention because the club had previously avoided Filipino-American players. He averaged 17.3 points and 9.6 rebounds as a rookie and took Rookie of the Year honors over Santos.

In 2007-08 he helped Sta. Lucia win the Philippine Cup against Purefoods, was named Best Player of the Conference, won the slam dunk contest and played in the All-Star Game. He closed that season as the league's Most Valuable Player. After missing most of the 2008-09 Philippine Cup, he returned for 2009-10, was again an All-Star and shared Player of the Week honors in January 2010.

In 2010 Sta. Lucia traded him, with Ryan Reyes and Charles Walters, to Talk N Text during a period of financial trouble for the team. There he rejoined coach Chot Reyes, the man who had first brought him to the Philippines. He won his first Comeback Player of the Year award in 2010. Talk N Text then won the 2010-11 Philippine Cup and the Commissioner's Cup, and Williams reclaimed his slam dunk title in 2011. The team won the Philippine Cup again in 2011-12 and in 2012-13, three straight in that conference, and he was chosen to the Mythical First Team in 2011. The side lost the 2012 Commissioner's Cup final to B-Meg in a deciding seventh game that went to overtime. Later he was named one of the PBA's 40 Greatest Players during the 2014-15 season, and the team took the 2015 Commissioner's Cup.

He signed a two-year contract with the club before 2016-17, reached the 5,000-point mark in the PBA that season and finished with a Mythical Second Team selection and a second Comeback Player of the Year award, which made him one of two players with more than one such honor.

On 7 September 2020 Williams announced on social media that he was retiring. The team had extended his contract through the end of that year and held his rights. In March 2021 he signed a two-year contract to come back after a conversation with Reyes, who had returned as head coach, and he later called the earlier decision rash. TNT won the 2021 Philippine Cup final against Magnolia in five games, and Williams was selected to the All-Defensive Team.

National team. Chot Reyes noticed him in 2005 and invited him to try out for the Philippine team, though FIBA's suspension of the country kept the team out of international play until 2007. Williams made the squad for the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship, where the Philippines finished ninth and he sank two decisive free throws against China. He started at power forward for Smart Gilas at the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship, where the team came fourth. In 2023 he returned to the national team for the February window of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.

Recognition

His PBA honors include Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Best Player of the Conference, two Comeback Player of the Year awards, Mythical First and Second Team selections and All-Defensive Team selections in 2008 and 2021. He won the slam dunk contest in his second pro season and again in 2011.

Personal life

Williams published an autobiography, Rising Higher, in 2012. The book has since gone out of print. He and his former wife had two children.