The Nets four reliable beat reporters were at the United Center this morning and were immediately struck by the site of Terrence Williams running the stairs in the arena with assistant coach Doug Overton.
Was this punishment for TWill’s controversial tweets the past 24 hours, where he essentially questioned if he would have been better off being drafted by another organization? Apparently not. Still, there were some interesting things said at practice today about Terrence Williams, by the rookie himself, and others.
First, TWill himself about whether he regrets being drafted by the Nets, from Julian Garcia and the Daily News:
“How would it be a regret?” he asked back. “I don’t make the decision where I go. It’s not a regret at all. You guys talk about that but my next tweet says I love my situation, I love my teammates and you guys (have) got to know that we’re all human and we hate losing. So it’s not a regret at all. It’s the best decision for me to come to New Jersey. I love it. I wouldn’t want to play at Charlotte or the other pick. I’m happy I’m here.”
Here’s coach Kiki, courtesy of The Record’s Al Iannazzone:
“For all our players, young players especially – and Terrence is our rookie obviously – this is a learning and teaching time,” Vandeweghe said. “So you take every opportunity you can to reinforce good habits and what we want from Terrence is to make sure he plays good defense first. We build a foundation that way.”
Dave D’Alessandro actually laid the smackdown on Williams from behind the computer:
But that’s the central point here: No matter what his frustration, he has no business tweeting that rubbish about how he’d rather be playing somewhere else – because that twit left zero room for interpretation.
Dave D. also got these interesting morsels from Rafer Alston:
“He’s not seeking advice from veterans. You know, he’s getting advice from guys in their first and second year, who don’t know,” said Rafer Alston. “And the problem now is, when you’re twittering and talking, when you’re young you don’t know what to say or the right things to say. Those are the things he has to learn.”
Sebastian pretty much summed it all up in his post earlier this morning, though I’d like to add that I hope the Nets here come down hard on Williams. You want to see the good in a young player, and I still believe TWill has a lot of talent that could help the Nets, but I think he needs to step back a bit, and watch his team play, and hopefully win, without him. Because he’s such good buddies with Nate Robinson, maybe he can ask Nate what being an immature prima donna has done for his standing with the Knicks.
