Article:Sheldon Williams: Goodbye My Love

I always liked Sheldon Williams. It was situation where I liked him from afar and then the hate parade came into town and since I had never mentioned my affection before, everyone just assumed I was part of the parade and I didn’t have the guts to set them straight. Plus, who doesn’t like parades?

But I bought my girlfriend one jersey, and it is Sheldon Williams. And in my book jerseys are second only to tattoos in expressions of love. So there is that.

I have just always felt sorry for the dude. He was two time defensive player of the year and first team all-American his final year. Those are good credentials. Yet he was labeled a bust simply because of where he got drafted.

There needs to be two kinds of busts. The GM bust and the player bust. Sheldon is a GM bust. Toward the end of his Hawks career, I honesty think Billy Knight told Woodson not to play him as a sort of memory trick. Maybe we all forget about that draft. Unfortunately then you have to play Solomon Jones which brings up still more questions marks about the same draft. Anyway, I digress.

Has Sheldon had trouble doing even the most basic things required of a basketball player (catching rebounds, boxing out, catching passes, etc)? Yes.

But he has improved since college. He has a much better jump shot, and if his confidence ever come back (and I think it is on a serious vacation at the moment, like a European one where they go away for months), the guy is going to be a good role player. As a side note, the very first step of the confidence rebuilding has to, I mean has to, be a new nickname. As a resident of Landlord’s tenants at Phillips, I have found no situation where that nickname cannot be mocked. No one even likes Landlords. Why not call him the tax collector? Or that guy who pushes little kids down? New nickname. Please.

In the end, the hawks already have one player who shows exactly zero emotion in Joe Johnson. No room for another, and if any player needed a new start it was Sheldon.

So I wish him all the best. I won’t miss paying him fifth pick money, but I will miss him going one on one in warm ups against SoLo. Where every night a battle for the ages.

Here is to you Sheldon. Glad to see you go. Do good.

Originally Posted at: Hawks, Dawgs, and Jesus