| Intro | American basketball player | ||||
| Is |
Athlete Basketball player |
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| From | United States of America | ||||
| Type | Sports | ||||
| Gender | male | ||||
| Birth | 5 April 1975, New York City, New York, U.S.A. | ||||
| Age: | 45 years | ||||
| Stats |
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Shammond Omar Williams (born April 5, 1975) is a retired American-born naturalized Georgian professional basketball player. Standing at 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in), he played at both point guard and shooting guard positions. During his career he played in the NBA and in Europe. He is currently an assistant coach at Western Kentucky.
Collegiate career
After attending Fork Union Military Academy, Williams played college basketball at North Carolina under Dean Smith and later, Bill Guthridge. During the 1997-1998 season, he was a member of new coach Bill Guthridge’s successful “Six Starters” rotation with Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Ed Cota, Ademola Okulaja and Makhtar N’Diaye. That season (his final college season), he averaged 16.7 points and 4.2 assists per game to go along with career averages of 10.7 points and 3.0 assists per game.
When Williams graduated from North Carolina, he held the following school records:
- Most Career Three Point Field Goals Made: 233
- Most Season Three Point Field Goals Made: 95
- Most Three Point Field Goals Made in a Game: 8 (tie)
- Highest Career Free Throw Percentage: .849
- Highest Season Free Throw Percentage .911
Williams also became a pioneer of the internet during his collegiate career. In 1995, Shammond Williams became the very first collegiate athlete to have a website dedicated to him on the World Wide Web. The website was developed by Seth Fleishman, and an archive of “Shammond’s World” is still available for viewing.
Professional career
Williams was selected in the second round, 34th overall, of the 1998 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. While he never played for the Bulls, he did play for the Atlanta Hawks, Seattle SuperSonics, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Hornets, and Orlando Magic.
He played internationally for Unics Kazan of Russia (where he obtained Georgian citizenship) and for Winterthur FC Barcelona of the Spanish Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB). He has played for the Georgia national team and was the Most Valuable Player of the 2005 EuroChallenge All-Star Game.
Williams signed a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers on July 12, 2006. After spending one season with the Lakers, Williams returned to Europe and signed with Pamesa Velencia for three seasons. Before the start of the 2009-2010 ACB regular season, Pamesa Valencia released Williams, whereupon he trained on his own in the United States. On November 9, 2009, Williams returned to Spain and signed with Unicaja Málaga.
In January 2011 he signed with Apollon Limassol BC in Cyprus. After finishing the season in Cyprus he signed with Sutor Basket Montegranaro in Italy.
Personal
He is a cousin of former basketball player Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Louis McCullough, who has played professional basketball overseas. He is a member of the Psi Delta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi.