Why Mo Williams wants to 'prove the world wrong' as Jackson State basketball coach
JACKSON —Mo WIlliams walked to the podium in the Jackson State Student Center and settled into his speech. He reminisced about his early days in Jackson that set him on his path to a lengthy basketball career.
The days when he'd get up at 5 a.m. to run four miles on the track at the YMCA on Fortification Street. The days when he'd play pick-up basketball in the morning before school, with individual skill workouts and testing his talent against his peers.
Those days, right here in Jackson, led the Murrah High product to play for more than a decade in the NBA, where he became an All-Star (2009) and a champion (2016).
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On Monday, it all culminated in Williams being introduced as Jackson State's men's basketball coach.
"I was blessed to be a really good basketball player coming out of high school," Williams said. "At that time, there were a lot of schools that recruited me, and Jackson State wasn’t the school that I chose to attend. But with that being said, Jackson State University is getting the best version of me, so timing is everything. So instead of getting me for the one year or two that University of Alabama got, I’ve got a good 20 in me."
Williams coached at Alabama State the past two seasons. Before that, he spent two seasons at Cal State Northridge as an assistant under Mark Gottfried, his college coach at Alabama. But Williams' coaching journey started long before he retired after helping the Cleveland Cavaliers win the championship in 2016.
He started an AAU program in 2008. He wanted to coach his oldest son, who was in eighth grade.
"Soon as the season was over in the NBA, a lot of guys would get their plane tickets to the Bahamas, head to the Dominican Republic on vacation," Williams said. "But as soon as the season was over I would head back home and be in the gym the next day with my youth, and my program. If you're familiar with AAU basketball, you're in the middle of nowhere a lot of times, and that's where I was...so I did that for about eight years and when I retired I knew what I wanted to do."
Williams is still finding his way as a college coach. He went 14-35 at Alabama State, including 7-21 this season. He says he's walking into a much different situation at Jackson State.
"This is not a rebuild by no means," Williams said. "That's the situation I just came from, we had some APR sanctions and we had to build it from the ground up. And those guys grew and played well for us, but that was a different ballgame. Here's a little different. We've got some guys, some seniors coming back."
He says he knows the pressure of being a champion from his time playing with LeBron James and the Cavaliers, who orchestrated one of the greatest comebacks in pro sports history when it rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Golden State Warriors in 2016.
Now that he's back in his hometown, Williams is eager to prove that he can win as a college basketball coach.
"I've got a chip on my shoulder and I want to prove the world wrong," Williams said. "I want to be a part of something that's special. I want to be a part of something that (women's basketball) Coach (Tomekia) Reed is doing, championships. I want to be part of what (Jackson State football coach Deion Sanders) is doing, championships. That's all I care about, championships. And it's a mindset."
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mo Williams wants to prove the world wrong with Jackson State basketball
