Monty Williams Helped Ryan Anderson After Girlfriend's Suicide

Monty Williams has played a huge role in New Orleans Pelicans forward Ryan Anderson’s mental recovery following the suicide of his girlfriend in 2013.

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Chris Ballard of Sports Illustrated recently detailed the 2013 suicide of New Orleans Pelicans forward Ryan Anderson’s girlfriend Gia Allemand and how Anderson has tried to move on.

Among the more interesting aspects of the powerful story is how Pelicans head coach Monty Williams was right by Anderson’s side in the immediate aftermath of Allemand’s suicide.

Ballard writes:

"Pelicans coach Monty Williams hurrying in with a team security guard and finding Ryan slumped on the carpet, his back to the door, unable to rise. Williams dropping to his knees and hugging his player, the two men rocking back and forth.[…]As a crowd milled outside the apartment complex, Williams and the security guard hoisted up Ryan, who was limp and drenched with tears and sweat, too hysterical even to walk. They dragged Ryan to the elevator and then into a waiting car, the tops of his feet, still wedged into flip-flops, scraping the asphalt so hard that his toes still bear thick white calluses more than a year later.As they drove in silence, Williams kept thinking that it was fine if he blew a game, but he couldn’t mess up now. Once home, he huddled with his wife, Ingrid, and Ryan in the family room, praying. Ingrid’s brother had committed suicide recently. She knew not to say it was going to be O.K., because it wasn’t. “This is going to be hard for a long time,” she told Ryan.(…)Around 1 a.m., at Ingrid’s urging, Monty brought one of his sons’ mattresses down to the living room. There the two men lay through the night, Ryan curled on the sofa and his coach on the floor next to him. When Ryan wanted to talk, they talked. Otherwise there was only his muted sobbing. Finally, just after the sun came up, Ryan fell into a fitful sleep."

Williams also played an instrumental role in Anderson returning to the court after a hiatus. But Williams didn’t push for Anderson’s return for selfish reasons, instead because he thought Anderson getting back to basketball would help the power forward’s recovery.

"Williams called soon after. The coach had been checking in regularly, sending Bible verses. Now he said he’d prayed on it and believed basketball would help bring Ryan peace, that “locker room love” would envelop him. The routine would be therapeutic. When you play basketball long enough, Williams believes, your body becomes accustomed to doing certain things at certain times of the year. This was the time of the year to get back on the court."

We always think of coaches as figures that solely care about their sport and winning. But here’s Williams, a coach that truly cares about his players beyond the court.

Williams should be applauded for what he did for Anderson.

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Pelicans Coach Monty Williams Helped Ryan Anderson After Girlfriend’s Suicide

By Sam Richmond | Nov 13, 2014

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