Mo Williams

Mo Williams

Williams with the Clippers
No. 25   Los Angeles Clippers
Point guard
Personal information
Date of birth	December 19, 1982 (1982-12-19) (age 28)
Place of birth	Jackson, Mississippi, United States
Nationality	American
High school	Murrah HS (Jackson, Mississippi)
Listed height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Listed weight	195 lb (88 kg)
Career information
College	Alabama (2001–2003)
NBA Draft	2003 / Round: 2 / Pick: 47th overall
Selected by the Utah Jazz
Pro career	2003–present
Career history
2003–2004	Utah Jazz
2004–2008	Milwaukee Bucks
2008–2011	Cleveland Cavaliers
2011–present	Los Angeles Clippers
Career highlights and awards
NBA All-Star (2009)
Mo Williams at NBA.com

Maurice "Mo" Williams (born December 19, 1982, in Jackson, Mississippi) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association. After a successful high school career at Murrah High School, Williams attended college at the University of Alabama where he led his team as a freshman to a 27-8 record, and also shared an SEC regular season championship. After two solid seasons at Alabama, Williams entered the 2003 NBA Draft, and was selected as the 47th pick of the second round by the Utah Jazz. The following year he signed with the Milwaukee Bucks as a free agent. Williams was given the starting point guard position after Milwaukee traded their former starting point guard, T.J. Ford to the Toronto Raptors. This movement opened up a chance for Williams to make a name for himself not only on the Milwaukee Bucks, but in the NBA as well. Williams averaged over 30 minutes a game, as well as other career achievements.

On August 13, 2008, Williams was a part of a three-team, six-player deal involving the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Williams was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and was immediately named their starting point guard. He began scoring big numbers alongside LeBron James.

Williams played in his first All-Star Game in 2009 as a replacement for Toronto's injured Chris Bosh.

College

Maurice Williams attended college at the University of Alabama under Mark Gottfried. In 2002 as a freshman, he started every game at point guard. Williams averaged 10.4 points and 4.5 assists per game. His play helped lead the Tide to a 27-8 record, including an astonishing 17-0 home record, along with a share of the SEC regular season championship. Williams and the Tide entered the NCAA tournament as a 2 seed, where they lost to Kent State 71-58 in the 2nd round. Williams led the team in scoring and assists, averaging 16.4 points and 3.8 assists per game for the 2003 season, which ended in a first round loss in the NCAA tournament to Indiana.

After two seasons, Williams decided to forego his final two years at Alabama, and enter the 2003 NBA Draft, which also included LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and others.

NBA career

Utah Jazz

Williams was selected by the Utah Jazz in the second round, 47th overall of the 2003 NBA Draft. He averaged 5 points and 1.3 assists for the Jazz in his rookie season. The following year he was released by the Jazz, then he signed with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Milwaukee Bucks

Williams with the Bucks

Filling in for Bucks' injured starting point guard T. J. Ford, Williams averaged 10.2 points and 6.1 assists during the 2004-05 season. In his new role coming off of the bench for the up-and-coming Bucks team, he showed a knack for clutch plays, making several game winning shots in the 2005-06 season.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2006 off-season the Bucks traded Ford to the Toronto Raptors for power forward Charlie Villanueva. This opened up a position in the starting lineup for Williams. In the first 19 games of the 2006-07 season Williams averaged 15.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 6.2 assists in nearly 35 minutes per game, all career highs.

On December 20, 2006 Bucks game vs. the Miami Heat, Williams recorded his first career triple-double with 19 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.^[1]

Williams was a free agent in summer 2007, but decided to stay with the Bucks by signing a six-year, $52 million deal.^[2]

Cleveland Cavaliers

Williams with the Cavaliers

On August 13, 2008, Williams was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three-team, six-player deal involving the Cavaliers, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Oklahoma City Thunder that also sent Cleveland's Joe Smith and Milwaukee's Desmond Mason to Oklahoma City and sent Cleveland's Damon Jones and Oklahoma City's Luke Ridnour and Adrian Griffin to Milwaukee.^[3] Upon his arrival, he changed his jersey number to #2 because his traditional #25 was already retired by former Cavalier Mark Price.

On February 10, 2009, Williams was chosen to replace forward Chris Bosh in the 2009 NBA All-Star Game.^[4] He was the second alternate choice, after Ray Allen, who replaced an injured Jameer Nelson.

On February 11, 2009, Mo Williams scored a career high 44 points to go along with 7 assists against the Phoenix Suns.

During the 2008–09 season, Mo Williams helped the Cleveland Cavaliers reach a league-leading 66–16 record. The team went 39–2 at the Quicken Loans Arena.

After the departure of LeBron James, Williams became a very vocal member of the Cavaliers. Amidst trade rumors, Mo begged on his Twitter account not to be traded. He also criticized the events surrounding LeBron's plight from Cleveland and even shot back at insults made to the Cavaliers by Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade.

On November 14, 2010, Williams made his first buzzer beater as a Cavalier, to win the game 83-81 over the Milwaukee Bucks. It was a 15 foot shot over Brandon Jennings as time expired. He scored a total of 25 points in the game and was the team's leading scorer. ^[5]

Los Angeles Clippers

On February 24, 2011, Williams was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers along with Jamario Moon in exchange for Baron Davis and a first round pick, which ended up being the first pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.^[6]

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2003–04	Utah	57	0	13.5	.380	.256	.786	1.3	1.3	.5	.0	5.0
2004–05	Milwaukee	80	80	28.2	.438	.323	.850	3.1	6.1	.9	.1	10.2
2005–06	Milwaukee	58	12	26.4	.424	.382	.850	2.5	4.0	.9	.1	12.1
2006–07	Milwaukee	68	68	36.4	.446	.346	.855	4.8	6.1	1.2	.1	17.3
2007–08	Milwaukee	66	66	36.5	.480	.385	.856	3.5	6.3	1.2	.2	17.2
2008–09	Cleveland	81	81	35.0	.467	.436	.912	3.4	4.1	0.9	.1	17.8
2009–10	Cleveland	69	68	34.2	.442	.429	.894	3.0	5.3	1.0	.3	15.8
2010–11	Cleveland	36	34	29.6	.385	.265	.833	2.7	7.1	0.9	.3	13.3
2010–11	L.A. Clippers	22	22	32.9	.422	.398	.880	2.5	5.6	.9	.0	15.2
Career		537	431	30.6	.443	.386	.867	3.1	5.0	1.0	.1	13.9
All-Star		1	0	17.0	.500	.400	.000	2.0	5.0	.0	.0	12.0

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2005–06	Milwaukee	5	0	15.0	.500	.182	.000	.6	2.0	.2	.0	7.2
2008–09	Cleveland	14	14	38.6	.408	.372	.767	3.2	4.1	.7	.1	16.3
2009–10	Cleveland	11	11	37.4	.409	.327	.804	3.1	5.4	.6	.2	14.4
Career		30	25	34.2	.417	.344	.787	2.7	4.2	.6	.1	14.1

Career highs

• Points: 44 vs. Phoenix 02/11/09
• Rebounds: 11 vs. Miami 12/20/06
• Assists: 15 @ Chicago 12/28/07
• Steals: 6 @ Charlotte 01/06/08
• Blocks: 4 vs. Atlanta 04/02/10

References

1. ^ ESPN - Miami vs. Milwaukee Recap, December 20, 2006
2. ^ . http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/basketball/nba/07/24/bucks.williams.ap/index.html. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ Cavaliers Acquire Williams in Three-Team Trade, August 13th, 2008
4. ^ "Cavs' Williams gets spot after all". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/allstar2009/news/story?id=3897494. Retrieved 2009-09-29. 
5. ^ "Williams' shot at buzzer lifts Cavs". CNN. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/gameflash/2010/11/24/28435_recap.html. 
6. ^ "CLIPPERS ACQUIRE WILLIAMS AND MOON". NBA.com. 2011-02-24. http://www.nba.com/clippers/news/breakingnews_110224.html. Retrieved 2011-02-24. 

External links

• Mo Williams at NBA.com
• Mo Williams Stats at ESPN.com
• Mo Williams NBA Statistics at Basketball-Reference.com
• Mo Williams College Basketball Statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Mo Williams Foundation

Persondata
Name	Williams, Maurice
Alternative names
Short description	American basketball player
Date of birth	December 19, 1982
Place of birth	Jackson, Mississippi
Date of death
Place of death