Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Grant Williams and Jayson Tatum were teammates and friends for four seasons on the Boston Celtics from 2019-23, but all of that goes out the window between the white lines. Prior to the Celtics taking on Williams’ current team, the Charlotte Hornets, the six-year veteran out of the University of Tennessee said it was “special” to see his former teammates win the NBA championship and the Larry O’Brien Trophy last season.
“Honestly, I didn’t really feel down because I left Boston,” Williams said, according to CLNS Media’s Noa Dalzell. “I wasn’t one of those, where, if I had gotten traded out of there, like there was some bad blood, it’d been different.”
Critics might take that “bad blood” remark with a grain of salt, after Williams blindsided and laid out Tatum with a hit and a collision more suited for an NFL game than an NBA matchup in the final moments of Boston’s 15-point victory, 124-109, over the Hornets on Friday. With 2:02 remaining in the game, Tatum grabbed a rebound and brought the ball up the court. Williams ran at him at halfcourt and knocked him to the floor with a shoulder check.
Williams was assessed with a Flagrant 2 foul and was tossed from the game.
“Grant Williams accelerates, makes a significant impact to the dribbler,” referee James Williams explained in upgrading the foul to a Flagrant 2. “A non-basketball play, potential for injury.”
Reviewing the play in slow motion, it is almost impossible to make the argument that Williams was attempting to go for the ball. Maybe he was trying to trap Tatum and force a turnover with the score 114-105. But he just ran into forward, leading with his shoulder. As the referee stated, “a non-basketball play.”
Cooler heads prevailed and Tatum walked away without confronting Williams, just wanting the clock to get down to zero. Maybe he knows that his former teammate sometimes plays with an edge. But Tatum’s current teammates, notably Jaylen Brown, were not as understanding, yelling at Williams as he left the court.
Then, with the game already decided, Miles Bridges was ejected with one unsportsmanlike technical foul, for knocking the ball into the stands-bench area with force after losing control of his emotions.
After the game, Brown did not hold back his feelings about Williams, saying the collision was intentional.
“Actions speak loud. It is what it is, we got the win, but there’s no place in the game for that,” Brown said, via the Boston Herald. “I thought JT and Grant were friends. I guess not.”
“What are we talking about? Y’all see the same play that I was seeing?” he added. “He hit him like it was a football play, like Ray Lewis coming across the middle or something. It is what it is. Grant knows better than that.”
Talking to NBC Sports Boston, Williams claimed he was not trying to injure Tatum.
“I think it was more so he didn’t see me more than anything else,” Williams said. “Like, I’m reaching, and I definitely made contact with the body before I reached.
“Probably a hard foul; definitely not intentional. I’m not trying to hurt him by any means. We all know that’s one of my closest friends in the league.”
Tatum had a double-double, leading the Celtics with a game-high 32 points and 11 rebounds. He was also money from the charity strike, making 11-of-13 free throws. Williams had a much quieter night before all of the fireworks went off, with six points, seven boards and five personal fouls before being ejected. LaMelo Ball led the Hornets with 31 points.
If anyone is harboring a grudge over Williams’ flagrant foul, that could become apparent quickly. The Celtics and Hornets meet again for a sequel on Saturday night on the same court. Get your popcorn ready.
