Robert Williams’ summer league injury adds to bad omens for Celtics
By Cody Rivera
It’s been somewhat of a rocky start to Robert Williams’ career with the Celtics.
It might still be too early to speculate on the future NBA career of Robert Williams, the latest addition to the Boston Celtics. After all, he’s only played in one summer league game, but nonetheless, things haven’t exactly gone swimmingly for the big man since draft night.
It was already one thing when Williams almost fell out of the first round, giving Boston the chance to possibly get the steal of the draft by snagging him at No. 27. But he slid that far down in the draft for a reason — teams were concerned about his work ethic. When he was playing college basketball at Texas A&M, it didn’t always seem like he was giving it his all on the court.
But the Celtics took a chance on him, believing that he would be a perfect fit with head coach Brad Stevens. Williams didn’t exactly reward their faith right out of the gate, showing up an hour late for his post-draft conference call, then missing his flight to Boston, and as a result, missing the team’s first summer league practice.
On Friday night, when Williams finally had the chance to show the Celtics what he was worth in their first summer league game, he ended up barely even seeing any action on the court. Williams played six minutes in the first quarter, scoring four points and two rebounds, then he left the game after banging knees with a 76ers player.
It appeared to be just a minor injury, and Williams will most likely be able to keep playing during the rest of Boston’s summer league games. But the fact that he got hurt so quickly, paired with all of the other mishaps he’s already gone through, it just seems like a bad omen for the Celtics’ big man.
Athletes often make a first impression, and a lot of times, those first impressions sum up what their career is going to be like. Based on the first impression that Williams made, he could potentially turn into an injury magnet at the professional level. And if he really does have problems with his work ethic, then any injury problems he has in the future are just going to be amplified.
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Hopefully, Williams gets everything straightened out and goes on to have a productive career as a big man for the Celtics. But to this point, there have been nothing but red flags, and that is never a good sign.