But there were some moments growing up when he preferred to not hang out with the future NBA superstar.
“I played junior high and high school basketball. When I would go to practice, being the little brother, he would want to tag along and watch,” Shawn recalls. “Usually by the end of practice, one of the coaches would say, ‘Come on Jason, you come out here and play with us.’ And I used to get furious.”
“It drove me crazy. He was pretty much showing everybody on our team up,” Shawn says. “That was always a hard pill to swallow.”
Pick up the Fall issue of Charleston Magazine to find out more about how the Williams brothers found fulfillment with the different paths they chose in life, as well as with the experiences that tie them together – including fatherhood.
Jason Williams on:
Hardest part about playing in the NBA
“Probably the traveling, being away from my family, seeing my kids grow up. It’s tough.”
Post-NBA goals
“I may coach when I finish. But at the same time, too, I may want to just watch my kids grow up and play sports and do whatever they want to do, too. I don’t know yet. I’m not that far ahead.”
Growing up with older brother Shawn
“He and I were a lot different growing up. I would describe him as boring – in my opinion. To each his own. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I wouldn’t change anything or what we did when we grew up. Just a lot of fun times.”
One of Shawn’s unique qualities
“He might be the only police officer I know that doesn’t curse.”
Shawn Williams on:
Issuing traffic tickets
“You hand out that many tickets on a daily basis, and, Charleston’s not that big, obviously you get a reputation of pretty much being a jerk. So, I couldn’t go to the Town Center Mall very often in uniform without somebody pointing out, saying ‘There’s the jerk.’ But at the same time, one of the things I was most proud of, and it’s kind of goofy, is I got very few conduct complaints filed against me. Because handing someone a $130, $150 ticket is a very negative thing, so to do that and not get complained on, to me, I was very proud of that.”
Hardest part about being a police officer
“Knowing all the bad stuff that happens in Charleston and that my kids are close to it really scares me sometimes, and I just do my best to shield them from all that.”
Younger brother Jason’s private side
“Behind the scenes, he’s so generous. When he played for the Memphis Grizzlies, being in Memphis, he donated so much money to St. Jude’s Hospital that never got reported in the press. And that’s not what it’s about; it’s not what I’m trying to say. But those types of things he does on a regular basis, he doesn’t want the credit for. He doesn’t want the newspapers to find out. He doesn’t want the television stations to find out. He has a very soft heart, a very generous heart.”
Growing closer to Jason through fatherhood
“We don’t see each other as much as we’d like, especially with his schedule during the season. He’s on the road 9 months out of the year, so it’s tough to meet up. We exchange kids stories, how they all go, ‘My kid did this,’ ‘Mine ran through the house without a diaper on and had an accident in the middle of the living room couch,’ and those types of stories. We’re constantly exchanging those stories.”
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