The ABC broadcast of the NBA Draft this week was intentionally light and casual, but that vibe soured midway through the show when top analyst Richard Jefferson took a strange shot at his colleague, Jay Williams.
After producers showed footage of Jefferson, Williams, and contributor Kenny Smith during their respective draft nights, Jefferson laughed at his own facial hair and explained that he chose to spend the night with family rather than on-site to walk the stage. Then, his attention turned to Williams, the No. 2 overall pick in 2002.
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Remarking upon the footage of fans roaring for Williams, Jefferson said, “they didn’t see the future coming, so they were cheering.”
Smith twisted the knife even further, adding, “his career trajectory would’ve been a lot different if he didn’t like motorcycles.”
Finally, Jefferson laughed that “everybody that goes to Duke isn’t that smart.”
Williams, of course, got in a life-altering motorcycle crash after his rookie season in the NBA and never played again. The longtime television analyst and entrepreneur has been open about the experience, though clearly it had a severe impact on his life.
While Williams played it cool on-air, he said in an interview Wednesday that he was “extremely uncomfortable” with the comments and “hated” that they distracted from the draftees’ big night.
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“There was no real tension, but it was awkward,” Williams told Front Office Sports. “It was awkward for me, being fully transparent with you, because a lot of times, my brain, I’m extremely competitive. And there are a lot of things that sometimes, when you’re on TV, naturally TV is becoming more like a podcast. But I think saying things to millions of people, there are byproducts of that … and I focused a lot the last 25 years of my life not about what happened, but what I’ve done with that.”
Williams added that while he knows Jefferson well, the often sarcastic analyst’s teasing may have crossed a line.
“For me, it was extremely uncomfortable,” Williams said. “I’ve known RJ, obviously our history dates all the way back to playing against each other in the 2001 national championship. Him and I are cool people. I think sometimes ribbing can go a little bit too far. People were comparing it to the Kevin Hart roast. But for me, things like that sometimes happen on TV. You deal with it in real time. I tried to stay above it, frankly.”
The Jefferson-Williams-Smith trio was a new grouping for ESPN on the NBA Draft, after Stephen A. Smith and Bob Myers starred on the ABC broadcast for the past several years.
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Williams, who is also one of ESPN’s top college basketball studio analysts, said he was disappointed that the viral moment took attention away from the young players fulfilling their dreams.
“One of the things I hated about the moment is a lot of times, things get said and it becomes a viral moment. But I don’t like when the viral moment becomes about me when I’m there talking about these young people when the moment was about them.”
Williams said the continued references to the accident more than 20 years ago ultimately show that he has overcome it, and expects he will do the same after the tensions during Tuesday night’s show.
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