No back-up plan

Deonte Williams has never had a back-up plan.

Not when he missed selection for his local district basketball team, nor when his plans for a fourth year in college didn’t come to fruition.

From the age of 11 when he chose to stick with basketball over rugby league, he was determined to make something of that choice.

So, when he took a call from Adelaide 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson last month offering him a Development Player position in the City of Churches, Williams felt like his hard work and dedication was starting to pay off.

The softly spoken 22-year-old revealed to Adelaide 36ers Media that he started to believe there was a future for him in basketball when he was in year 11 at Trinity Grammar School in Sydney.

“That was the year I hit a bit of a growth spurt, and that's when I grew from like 5’9” to about 6’3”,” Williams explained.  

“The summer going into year 11, we had a little halfway season tournament in the school system called the Trinity Cup and it's the top private school kids, so when I was able to compete with them, and when I hit that growth spurt and I started dunking, I was like, ‘you know what, I can go somewhere with this’.

“As the year went by and I was starting to work out more, I saw my progression get better and better and better and then before you know it, I was able to get an opportunity at junior college and that's when I got my first offer in year 12 and I just took it.

“I didn't even think about it. Just took the opportunity straight away.”

He headed over to South Georgia Tech College in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association, playing two seasons there.

As a sophomore in 2023-24, Williams was named first team all-conference, GCAA Defensive Player of the Year, GCAA all-tournament, GCAA all-academic, and two-time GCAA Player of the Week.

As part of the Georgia Southwestern State Hurricanes men's basketball program, he was named Peach Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year following a dominant defensive campaign.

Williams also gained NCAA Division I experience with Sacramento State Hornets men's basketball, working under Australian head coach David Patrick and competing against some of the top collegiate programs in the country.

It was a far cry from the teenager who lost his love for the game after missing out on selection for the Sydney Comets the season after he was part of the Comets side that won the national championship in 2016.

He credits time with St George and Sutherland for helping him reignite his passion, though looking back Williams says he has no idea what he would have done if basketball didn’t work out.

“I've always had the plan that basketball was going to work out,” Williams smiled.

“I didn't want to have any backup plan because if you have backup plans, in my opinion, I feel like you're not confident.

“I just felt like if I gave it everything I’ve got and if it didn't work out, then, you know, that's when you start working out a backup.”

Williams picked up a basketball for the first time at age five. It wasn’t forced on him but given his father Rosbyn was a talented basketballer, he always had a coach and critic watching on.

“My dad played over here for a bit,” Williams explained. “He played like semi-professional, played a bit of ABA and stuff like that, but he was a very big influence on why I picked up a basketball in the first place.

“It wasn't really a sense of like they forced the basketball on me, but he asked me if I wanted to learn how to play basketball. I said, yeah, because I loved sports at a young age and yeah, I picked it up at five years-old and I’ve loved it ever since.”

Parents Rosbyn Williams and Selina Martin have been his biggest supporters, each helping him along his basketball journey in their own way. 

“When I was back home in Sydney, Dad was going to every one of my games,” Williams said.

“He was giving me feedback, telling me stuff that I needed to work on. He's my harshest critic in the sense of like he wants to see me at my best, just to be the best version of myself.

“But, I appreciate everything he's done for me from when he put the ball in my hands to all the travelling that he did in Sydney for basketball games, as well as being able to be there for me when I was in America as well, because it's kind of hard, doing that long distance, just being by yourself over there, and he tried to help me as much as possible for me to be comfortable.

“It worked out so well that the three years that I was in America was close to where my dad actually grew up. The my majority of my family on my dad's side are in Georgia, so it was good.”

Mum Selina was less of an expert on basketball but picked up enough to keep his mindset in line.

“Mum was a part of the taking me to basketball games growing up,” Williams reflected.

“She doesn't really have as much of an idea, just from watching Dad play back in the day but she was always involved in the sense of like, she would talk to me about the body language side.

"If I acted a fool during a game, she would tell me and she'd pull me in line, but she kept me grounded, she kept me level-headed. 

“She kept me humble and she would tell me the same things that dad would, but in a nicer way, if I can put it that way.”

Getting a Development Player opportunity in the NBL was the furthest thing from his mind when he returned to Australia this year, with one eye on returning to the US for a fourth and final year in college.

When that didn’t work out, he found himself suiting up for the Bankstown Bruins alongside childhood friend Anthony Mundine III and former Adelaide 36er Jason Cadee – who he credits with both helping him settle into life with the Bruins and to putting his name forward to the 36ers management.

“The first week I came back, I went to watch the Bruins play a trial game against Penrith,” Williams said.

“I knew a couple of the boys that were on the team and the head coach, Curtis Sardi, said ‘if you're keen, you could come join in and practice and stuff, come help out the boys’. I was like, ‘yeah, for sure’, because my plan was to actually go back to college after the season but obviously it didn't work out.

“And then once it didn't work out, I asked Curtis, I was like, ‘hey, is there an opportunity for me to play?’ And he told me, ‘yeah, for sure’. And he gave me the opportunity that weekend and obviously speaking with Jason Cadee about it, he kind of helped me ease into the Bankstown team. I didn’t want to step on toes coming in.

“I didn't get the opportunity to play that many games with him, but, it kind of helped me those couple weeks prior, being able to fit in with the Bankstown culture, because Bankstown is one of the more prestigious clubs in Sydney and there's a lot of history with that.

“Eventually, throughout the season Cadee helped me get this opportunity in Adelaide and I can't thank him enough. He basically put his name on the line for me and I’m glad that I'm here right now because of him.”

Having joined pre-season training with most of the Sixers roster, Williams is finding his feet, enjoying working with Coach Gleeson and his staff, and finding the playing group supportive as he settles into a city he had never visited before.

He is living with teammate Flynn Cameron, learning about being a professional and relying on the NBL26 Most Improved Player to ferry him around while he awaits the arrival of his car.

The athletic guard is looking forward to the return to Adelaide of the rest of the playing group but especially six-time MVP Bryce Cotton.

“I'm very keen to learn from Bryce, he's considered the greatest import ever, like one of the goats in NBL history and for me growing up watching him play when he was at Perth with Coach Gleeson there, it's a crazy turnaround,” Williams laughed.

“Me being 13 or 14, watching him play in Perth now to being on the same court as him, it just like, it freaks me out in a bit, but it also gives me confidence just knowing I’ll be on the court with a guy like that, and some of the other guys like John Jenkins, Zylan (Cheatham), and Nick (Rakocevic). 

“I can’t wait for all the boys to get here in these next couple of weeks, and then once we get the full team leading up to the Blitz.”

With new signing Bul Kuol still making his way back to full fitness following his ACL injury, there may be an opportunity for Williams to get some playing time in the pre-season and early stages of the Hungry Jack’s NBL27 campaign.

But despite knowing his strengths and what he wants to work on, the level headed talent knows he needs to earn his spot.

“I want to bring the intensity on the defensive end,” he said. “I think that's my biggest strong suit.

“I just bring the defensive intensity and effort there and then offensively just being a downhill threat, being able to go downhill and playmaking off that.

“The thing I need to work on is catch and shoot, but with being over here, working out every day, it's going to get to where it needs to get to, once I get the opportunity to play.

“Hopefully there's going to be an opportunity for me to play but at the end of the day, I'm not expecting to get minutes because minutes are earned.

“I’ve just got to prove it in practice every day and try and compete every day to earn those minutes.”

The Sixers will start their season at John Cain Arena against Melbourne United on September 19.