Grant Williams and Bam Adebayo: From high school rivals to seeking the NBA title

Publish date: 2024-06-02

Bam Adebayo is thundering down the lane, ready to throw down another jaw-dropping tomahawk. But just as he is gearing up for liftoff, in slides his nemesis, Grant Williams, to take the charge.

This sounds like action from the Eastern Conference Finals between Adebayo’s Miami Heat and Williams’ Celtics. But this charge was taken in 2016.

Back then, Williams was emerging on the Charlotte high school hoops scene while Adebayo was a perfectly chiseled behemoth for nationally-ranked High Point (N.C.) Christian Academy, a center whose game was mostly going through or over whoever was unlucky enough to be in his way. Williams was generously listed at 6-foot-7 by Providence Day School, where he was teammates with University of Kansas star Devon Dotson and Joshua Howard, son of NBA legend Juwan Howard.

Though Providence Day had been successful for several years with Williams as their leader, High Point Christian began recruiting Division 1 talent from all over and brought in Adebayo to be their star. With a McDonald’s All-American in tow, High Point became the favorites to win the North Carolina title heading into the season. Their first matchup came over Thanksgiving break, a primetime, standing-room-only tip at the 2015 Charlotte Hoops Challenge tournament. High Point was ranked 12th in the nation at that point, while Adebayo, who was then still known as Edrice instead of Bam, was the sixth-ranked recruit in the country and committed to Kentucky.

Yet the relatively unheralded Williams helped Providence Day get out to a 20-5 lead for a wire-to-wire win as he battled Adebayo and pulled off the upset. In typical fashion, Williams only had 13 points and took the brunt of the abuse under the rim, but he enabled his teammates to thrive.

“Grant was incredible,” Providence Day coach Brian Field said. “They went head-to-head and I’m sure he got dunked on a couple times, but he didn’t let it bother him and just kept going right back at Bam. That was a great win for our team and we were like, man, we got a chance to win this thing.”

A fan pulled the plug on the lighting system in the gym just before the game ended to temporarily black out the arena, but the lights never went out on Providence Day’s season. They lost just one game after that High Point upset to pave their way to the state playoffs.

“Then we get to the state finals and we’re playing against Bam Adebayo again,” Williams recalled during remarks in March while recording The Athletic’s “Grant & Tacko Show” podcast. “Five-star recruit versus two-star, three-star Grant Williams.”

This was the moment Williams had been waiting for. Earlier in high school, he wasn’t that good of a player. There were moments when his family was telling him life without basketball wouldn’t be the end of the world. He had so many passions, from musicals to board games, and there were times where the self-described chubby undersized big man could have given up. A few years later, he was the leader of the best team in the basketball hotbed that is North Carolina. But before that, when the moment that could define his journey and his future finally arrived, the typically loose and jovial Williams was feeling the pressure.

“I could tell he was pretty nervous before the game. There was a lot weighing on that game for his legacy,” said Notre Dame guard Trey Wertz, Williams’ Providence Day teammate and friend since they were AAU teammates in third grade. “Beating High Point for the second time was going to be difficult. It definitely took me aback a bit and I tried to joke with him to loosen him up, because I had never really seen him like that.”

After a few laughs, on the opening possession of the game, Providence Day grabbed the rebound and Wertz kicked it ahead to Williams, who beat Adebayo down the floor for a layup. Whatever Wertz said clearly worked, as Providence Day got off to a 13-4 lead heading into the first quarter break.

The game announcer called Adebayo a “man amongst boys” in a game full of future Division 1 players, but Williams was keeping him from gaining steam and forced turnovers on Adebayo’s first two post-ups. Williams was playmaking from the perimeter and pulling Adebayo way out of the pivot while being able to sag off the High Point star center to zone under the rim because Adebayo was not a shooting threat off the ball. Williams controlled the glass, drawing several fouls on Adebayo to put him on the bench early in the second period.

But early in the second half, another Williams assist to a Wertz 3 was the only thing holding off the charging High Point offense. Adebayo posterized Williams and a High Point 3 cut the lead to single digits. But then as Adebayo came streaking down the floor, Williams stepped in to take that aforementioned charge. It was an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, which defaults to an offensive foul.

“Grant is the lone guy back and Bam is full speed ahead, rearing up to just tomahawk the ball and Grant takes the most gut-wrenching charge that I have seen in my life,” Field said. “I’m thinking he might not get up from this. He might be dead. And Grant just pops right back up and it’s Bam’s fourth foul in the early third quarter.”

With Adebayo out of the game, Williams’ teammates felt free to seize control and play without worrying about the All-American in the middle of the floor.

“That was so big,” said teammate Isaac Johnson, who is starting his first season with Portugal’s Ovarense after four years with Appalachian State. “Grant tries to outsmart his opponents, so he played that position really well, which got Bam out the game and created less of a threat for us. Him in the game, all the attention was on him. So when he was out because of foul trouble, it just made scoring and defending easier.”

It was apparent in both matchups that Adebayo would try to move Williams on a box out or a post-up and would get absolutely nowhere. Williams would frustrate him by always getting proper position and using his smaller but sturdy frame to move the High Point giant around until he made a mistake and got into foul trouble. Adebayo may have always been the more gifted player, but Williams was renowned for thinking and executing a working strategy.

“Grant’s IQ is definitely one of the highest I’ve seen,” Johnson said. “He was smaller, but he just played that position well by containing Bam. Of course Bam was athletic as I-don’t-know-what and did a lot for that High Point team. So just to contain Bam, Grant held his own and I feel like he won that battle.”

Providence Day would completely shut down the High Point offense for the rest of the third to close the period up 53-35. They never looked back. Williams outscored Adebayo 15 to 11 — which included an alley-oop for Adebayo just before the buzzer while Williams began to celebrate with his teammates — as Providence Day won the North Carolina title, 67-53.

“We ended up winning the state championship and everyone was shocked ‘cause they were like, ‘Who is this Grant Williams kid?’” said that Grant Williams kid.

He felt he made that answer quite clear. He had beaten the biggest star in the state twice, while other blue-chip prospects Harry Giles and Dennis Smith, Jr. were injured.

“Having that spotlight on him is something he just loves,” said Johnson. “He liked the greatest matchups. He wanted to play the best teams. So we all did.”

Providence Day rose to become the ninth-ranked team in the nation, and Williams figured he had done everything he could to lock up the coveted North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year award. Though they ended up losing their first-round national tournament matchup to Montverde, the second-ranked team in the nation, Williams had made his mark.

“I go into (the final) thinking, ‘I’m about to get Gatorade Player of the Year!’ I was hyped. I beat him both times!” Williams said. “Nope. Next thing you know, Bam Adebayo: Gatorade Player of the Year. (Then I’m) thinking, ‘Oh, I might be able to get to the Jordan Game!’ Look on the list, nothing. I played for CP3 (a Nike Elite Youth Basketball team) though. I thought them being with Jordan, I’d have the opportunity! Nope. So I was like, dang, let me just be me.”

Grant Williams being Grant Williams drives his success. His teammates adore him as the goofy locker room presence who makes the daily grind and heat of competition something seem a little more fun. Most importantly, his team can still count on him to be serious and dedicated when it needs him. In one season with the Celtics, he has gone from butt-of-the-joke rookie who was earning nicknames for his missed 3-pointer streak and collecting more fouls than minutes to an invaluable cog.

Williams is adapting to his new level of competition like someone who has been leading and winning his whole life. He has become an incredibly active defender and knockdown deep shooter while Adebayo has turned into an elite playmaker and game-changing defender. Though their games have evolved significantly, it’s the same battle against the same guy, just with more cameras pointing their direction and slightly higher stakes.

“I think with Grant, Bam realized that being the strongest, most athletic guy wasn’t enough,” said Brandon Clifford, Adebayo’s coach at High Point.

Clifford sees that state title game as a turning point for both players. While Williams learned he had to keep winning at the highest levels to earn the recognition he felt he deserved, Adebayo had to evolve into a more dynamic player if he wanted to make the most out of his herculean physique.

“I guarantee you that as kind as Bam is, there’s a target on Grant because of those battles and that’s how it is with good NBA players,” Clifford said. “They take things personally and that motivated them to get better when they matched up at Tennessee and Kentucky and now here in the conference finals.”

Familiarity can easily breed contempt, but it has instead fostered camaraderie in their competition.

“It’s definitely an experience that it’s cool to be able to be in this position with him, playing against him, and moving forward, whoever makes it, you’ve got to give a pat on the back to the other man,” Williams said on Monday

But Williams remains in perennial competition with Adebayo, who is putting up the staggering numbers expected of an All-Star. Williams will have to find victory in his play as much as in the final box score. He has always been a winning player, but he still feels like he’s on a quest to prove to everyone he’s a great player.

“I went to Tennessee, had some success there. It wasn’t from the beginning, but I worked my butt off every single day,” Williams said in March. “Nobody thought I’d be SEC Player of the Year. Nobody thought I’d be in the NBA. No one thinks I’ll be good in the NBA. No one thinks I’ll last.

“So I always just had that mindset, that chip on my shoulder, that there’s always things I can improve on and there’s always going to be doubters.”

Field could see it even back when Williams was at Providence Day.

“He wasn’t in the top 100 kids, so every time he went out, he’s able to show everybody he’s just as good as these McDonald’s All-Americans across the country,” said Field, his former coach. “He lived for that. He really liked to compete against players ranked higher than him and I followed his lead on that. He was undoubtedly our vocal leader, but also our competitive leader as well.”

Now he’s the guy cracking jokes before the game and leading the goofiest handshake line in the league. But once he is on the floor, he’s looking to shut down Adebayo, Pascal Siakam and any other All-Star coming his way. It’s been nearly a year since he played his first NBA minutes and his game has transformed over that time, but he still plays like nobody thinks he belongs.

“If you let them affect you, that’s how you end up losing,” Williams said. “And I don’t like to lose.”

This story includes excerpts from the second episode of The Grant & Tacko Show on The Athletic Podcast Network.

(Photo: Greg M. Cooper / USA Today)

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Grant Williams and Bam Adebayo: From high school rivals to seeking the NBA title