3x NBA Sixth Man of the Year winner Lou Williams told his draft night story on the Knuckleheads Podcast, saying that if it wasn’t for agent Bill Duffy, he probably doesn’t get picked out of high school in 2005.
(Via Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson & Darius Miles):
“I was in ESPN Zone in Atlanta. I had a draft party at ESPN Zone. At that time, Bill Duffy & Associates, Merle Scott, they was representing me at BDA. I think we had a promise at 27 with Miami at that time (actual pick was 29). And once Miami hit, the college player of the year was still on the board, Wayne Simien (not the CPOY but was 1st team All American & Big 12 POY). Wayne was still on the board at the time and I think he was supposed to be gone already. They ended up taking him. The Hawks had the 31st pick, the first pick in the second round. But they didn’t want to take another hometown kid and have two hometown kids sitting on the bench because they had just took Josh the year before, and Kevin Willis still had them minutes at the four.
“So Smoove wasn’t getting no playing time, and then if they would have drafted me, you got two blue chips from the city sitting on your bench. It was going to be a problem, so they took Salim Stoudamire at 31. They took Salim and after that I was depressed because I hadn’t worked out for nobody past the first round. I didn’t even work out for the Hawks. So I was like, ‘S***, it’s over.’ Along with obviously talent, my agent represented Mo Cheeks. And so I think my agent kinda asked him like, ‘If y’all ain’t doing nothing with this pick, y’all need to take this kid.’ And Philly took me. They weren’t even on my radar. I ain’t know what was going on. They took me at 45.”
