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Seven years ago, Kelly Williams tried to get away from the game she put her heart and soul into. Her spirit was very willing to continue, but the constant battle with her own body became too difficult to handle.
Their goodbye was not planned, nor was it eloquent. It was just a statement.
“It just happened,” he said. “One day I came here to practice and I spoke to Coach Norman (Black) upstairs. I couldn’t even get a word out. I started crying. I couldn’t even explain myself at the time, but he knew what was coming.”
Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura or ITP, a rare blood disease characterized by an abnormal decrease in the number of platelets, was to end his career.
Williams, who was St. Lucia Realtors’ first overall pick in the 2006 PBA Rookie Draft, was known for his explosive athleticism. He made a mark early in his career by winning the PBA Rookie of the Year award and earning a spot on the Mythical First Team in his first season. The following year, Williams was named the league’s MVP, beating out other big-name nominees like Jayjay Helterbrand, Mark Caguioa, Asi Taulava and Arwind Santos, not knowing then that they would all be members of the PBA’s top 40 players.
However, its heyday would come after it was switched to the TNT franchise. There he became an important part of the franchise dynasty that included the Philippine Cup reign from 2011 to 2013. It was still supposed to be the best moment of his career, but ITP became too tough an enemy for Williams. .
He came to his practices very tired because he often did not sleep. Williams took a long list of drugs that had side effects like fatigue, insomnia, sudden weight gain, and mood swings. He battled all of these challenges every time he put on his TNT jersey.
Finally, Williams decided in 2013 that fighting the ITP took a lot of his effort and that his basketball career had to come to an end in the process.
For the next several months, Williams stayed in Nebraska with his family with the sole objective of trying to improve. He cheered for his team from afar, but found it difficult to watch the perennial champions fight without him and other key players recovering from their duties at Gilas Pilipinas.
Basketball didn’t take up much space in Williams’ mind until Black told him about a training camp the team would have in Las Vegas. With a new form of treatment in his back pocket, Williams did better than he expected at that camp, and three days after returning to Nebraska, he decided to pack up and return to the Philippines to give basketball another shot.
Although the TNT franchise was no longer the dynasty it was before, the return was worth it for Williams, as he added to his collection of titles by helping his team win the 2015 PBA Commissioner’s Cup. Williams will no longer be with the team when they try to end their current title drought, but he has already made his mark on the team for years to come.
At Williams, we saw a player gifted with extraordinary physical attributes. Even during the last years of his career, he still surprised PBA fans with thunderous dunks out of nowhere. We saw a player who was challenged by a curve ball that life threw at him. We saw him fight. We saw him persevere. In the midst of all that, he remained a true professional. Sure, there were times when he admitted that he was irritable in practice or lethargic in a game due to the mix of medications he was taking, but we always knew that was not his true self.
Although the decision to say goodbye to the PBA for the second time was partly forced by the pandemic in which the entire world finds itself, this time he walks away more prepared.
Williams leaves the PBA leaving us so many memories of a player who left everything on the court, during his prime and even while battling illness.
