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Corliss a king to fans
BY CHRIS COCOLES
Posted on Tuesday, August 29, 2006
ROGERS — He was the forgotten man on the Sacramento Kings’ bench most of last season, but Kings’ fans know who he is.
In last spring’s first-round NBA playoff series between Sacramento and 2005 champion San Antonio, the Kings were blowing out the Spurs, seconds away from squaring the firstround series 2-2.
A sellout crowd at Arco Arena started chanting “We want Corliss !” prompting Kings Coach Rick Adelman to ask the former Arkansas Razorbacks ’ standout if he wanted to go in the game.
“I was fine,” Williamson said. “I didn’t need to. But by the end of the game, the fans start chanting your name and you say ‘What the heck, we might as well do it.’”
Williamson capped Sacramento’s 102-84 victory with a field goal in his 40 seconds on the court.
“The young guys, anytime I’m in the game, are always trying to get me ball,” Williamson said Monday at the Razorback Basketball Golf Outing at Lost Springs Golf Club. “Don’t pass me the ball, you go ahead and shoot. I’m too old and have to loosen up.”
Williamson, 32, who aspires to be a coach when he retires, said he isn’t ready to take a seat on the bench in a suit and tie yet. But his playing time dropped dramatically in 2005-06.
Williamson averaged less than 10 minutes a game for the Kings, who re-acquired him late in the 2004-05 season in a trade that sent Chris Webber to Philadelphia. This, after winning the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 2002 for Detroit and being valuable reserve in its world championship run two years later.
Talk around Sacramento has been Williamson will not return to Sacramento, where he’s due $ 6. 5 million after playing in just 37 games. The dismissal of Adelman and hiring of new Coach Eric Musselman added to the anxiety.
Williamson said he’s ready to report to training camp next month, though as his three children get older he looks forward to spending more time with them and his wife Michelle. The family is comfortable being in Sacramento and hopeful of finishing his career in California.
“As far as the NBA goes, that’s my hometown,” said Williamson, who was drafted by Sacramento in the first round in 1995 after leading the Razorbacks to an NCAA title and back-to-back trips to the championship game. “Life comes full circle every now and then, and it definitely happened for me.”
Williamson’s charitable work has contributed to his popularity in Sacramento. Arco Arena fans saluted Williamson with a standing ovation on April 18 when he was presented the annual Oscar Robertson Triple Double Award for the Kings player who most impacts the community.
“When I think of Corliss I think of a consummate professional,” Razorbacks Coach Stan Heath said. “Just a high character guy.”
Williamson is active in the “Read to Achieve” and “Season of Giving” charity programs around Sacramento. Back home in Arkansas, he’s staged golf tournaments and fund-raisers for multiple organizations, and he’s spearheaded the funding for his hometown Russellville Boys and Girls Club, where he recently made a $ 1 million donation. The facility is named for the late L. V. Williamson, Corliss’ grandfather.
“I enjoy the whole process of trying to raise money for people in the community because I know growing up how many people helped me,” Williamson said. “It meant a lot. You never do it for awards, but to be recognized for an award like that. It was great.” His time in Sacramento — both the five
1 years to begin his career and the past 1 / 2 since being traded by the Philadelphia 76 ers — convinced Williamson he wants to make coaching his post-playing career. Williamson, the oldest player on the Kings’ roster, can be somewhat of a mentor to Ron Artest, the talented-but-troubled superstar who joined Sacramento at last season’s trade deadline. Over the years he picked the brain of Pete Carril, the former Princeton coach, Kings ’ assistant and noted hoops gym rat. “I try to be, I guess, a player-coach on the sidelines,” Williamson said. “I enjoy talking to the younger guys. I don’t like the fact that they call me old.”
Corliss a king to fans
BY CHRIS COCOLES
Posted on Tuesday, August 29, 2006
ROGERS — He was the forgotten man on the Sacramento Kings’ bench most of last season, but Kings’ fans know who he is.
In last spring’s first-round NBA playoff series between Sacramento and 2005 champion San Antonio, the Kings were blowing out the Spurs, seconds away from squaring the firstround series 2-2.
A sellout crowd at Arco Arena started chanting “We want Corliss !” prompting Kings Coach Rick Adelman to ask the former Arkansas Razorbacks ’ standout if he wanted to go in the game.
“I was fine,” Williamson said. “I didn’t need to. But by the end of the game, the fans start chanting your name and you say ‘What the heck, we might as well do it.’”
Williamson capped Sacramento’s 102-84 victory with a field goal in his 40 seconds on the court.
“The young guys, anytime I’m in the game, are always trying to get me ball,” Williamson said Monday at the Razorback Basketball Golf Outing at Lost Springs Golf Club. “Don’t pass me the ball, you go ahead and shoot. I’m too old and have to loosen up.”
Williamson, 32, who aspires to be a coach when he retires, said he isn’t ready to take a seat on the bench in a suit and tie yet. But his playing time dropped dramatically in 2005-06.
Williamson averaged less than 10 minutes a game for the Kings, who re-acquired him late in the 2004-05 season in a trade that sent Chris Webber to Philadelphia. This, after winning the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 2002 for Detroit and being valuable reserve in its world championship run two years later.
Talk around Sacramento has been Williamson will not return to Sacramento, where he’s due $ 6. 5 million after playing in just 37 games. The dismissal of Adelman and hiring of new Coach Eric Musselman added to the anxiety.
Williamson said he’s ready to report to training camp next month, though as his three children get older he looks forward to spending more time with them and his wife Michelle. The family is comfortable being in Sacramento and hopeful of finishing his career in California.
“As far as the NBA goes, that’s my hometown,” said Williamson, who was drafted by Sacramento in the first round in 1995 after leading the Razorbacks to an NCAA title and back-to-back trips to the championship game. “Life comes full circle every now and then, and it definitely happened for me.”
Williamson’s charitable work has contributed to his popularity in Sacramento. Arco Arena fans saluted Williamson with a standing ovation on April 18 when he was presented the annual Oscar Robertson Triple Double Award for the Kings player who most impacts the community.
“When I think of Corliss I think of a consummate professional,” Razorbacks Coach Stan Heath said. “Just a high character guy.”
Williamson is active in the “Read to Achieve” and “Season of Giving” charity programs around Sacramento. Back home in Arkansas, he’s staged golf tournaments and fund-raisers for multiple organizations, and he’s spearheaded the funding for his hometown Russellville Boys and Girls Club, where he recently made a $ 1 million donation. The facility is named for the late L. V. Williamson, Corliss’ grandfather.
“I enjoy the whole process of trying to raise money for people in the community because I know growing up how many people helped me,” Williamson said. “It meant a lot. You never do it for awards, but to be recognized for an award like that. It was great.” His time in Sacramento — both the five
1 years to begin his career and the past 1 / 2 since being traded by the Philadelphia 76 ers — convinced Williamson he wants to make coaching his post-playing career. Williamson, the oldest player on the Kings’ roster, can be somewhat of a mentor to Ron Artest, the talented-but-troubled superstar who joined Sacramento at last season’s trade deadline. Over the years he picked the brain of Pete Carril, the former Princeton coach, Kings ’ assistant and noted hoops gym rat. “I try to be, I guess, a player-coach on the sidelines,” Williamson said. “I enjoy talking to the younger guys. I don’t like the fact that they call me old.”
