Gus Williams
Williams in 1981
Personal information
Born (1953-10-10) October 10, 1953 (age 70)
Mount Vernon, New York, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight175 lb (79 kg)
Career information
High schoolMount Vernon
(Mount Vernon, New York)
CollegeUSC (1972–1975)
NBA draft1975: 2nd round, 20th overall pick
Selected by the Golden State Warriors
Playing career1975–1987
PositionPoint guard
Number1
Career history
1975–1977Golden State Warriors
1977–1984Seattle SuperSonics
1984–1986Washington Bullets
1987Atlanta Hawks
Career highlights and awards
Career statistics
Points14,093 (17.1 ppg)
Assists4,597 (5.6 apg)
Steals1,638 (2.0 spg)
Stats Edit this at Wikidata at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Gus Williams (born October 10, 1953) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Wizard", he played for the Seattle SuperSonics, winning an NBA championship in 1979. He also played for the Golden State Warriors, Washington Bullets and Atlanta Hawks.

High school and college

Williams played high school basketball at Mount Vernon, where he was selected player of the year in 1971 by the New York State Sportswriters Association. He played college basketball at the University of Southern California.

Professional career

Williams was selected in the second round of the 1975 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors and in the first round of the 1975 ABA draft by the Spirits of St. Louis. Williams signed with the Warriors for the 1975–76 season and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team in his first season.[1] Williams played two seasons with the Warriors before he was allowed to leave as a free agent before the 1977–78 season, when he signed with the Seattle SuperSonics.

While with Seattle, Williams was twice selected to the NBA All-Star Game, and was an All-NBA First Team (1982) and All-NBA Second Team (1980) selection. Williams, whose style of play earned him the nickname "the Wizard",[2] led the Sonics to the 1979 league title while averaging a team-high 28.6 points per game in the Finals.

While in the prime of his career, Williams sat out the entire 1980–81 season due to a contract dispute. He returned in 1981–82 and was named the NBA Comeback Player of the Year after finishing seventh in the league in scoring (23.4).[3] He played three more seasons with the Sonics after that. In 1984, he signed with the Washington Bullets. During the 1984–85 season Williams played alongside the similarly named Guy Williams.

He finished his career with a 17.1 point-per-game scoring average in a career spanning 12 years from 1975 to 1987. In 2004 Williams' #1 jersey was retired by the Sonics. In 2016 Williams' jersey was retired by USC.

Williams' younger brother Ray (1954–2013) also played in the NBA.[4]

Popular culture references

Williams is one of five 1970s Seattle SuperSonics players whose names are featured on characters in "The Exterminator," the third episode of Season 1 of iZombie. The other four are Freddie Brown, Wally Walker, Marvin Webster and Don Watts.[5]

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
 †  Won an NBA championship

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1975–76 Golden State 77 – 22.4 .428 – .742 2.1 3.1 1.8 0.3 11.7
1976–77 Golden State 82 – 23.5 .464 – .747 2.8 3.6 1.5 0.2 9.3
1977–78 Seattle 79 – 32.6 .451 – .817 3.2 3.7 2.3 0.5 18.1
1978–79† Seattle 76 – 29.8 .495 – .775 3.2 4.0 2.1 0.4 19.2
1979–80 Seattle 82 – 36.2 .482 .194 .788 3.4 4.8 2.4 0.5 22.1
1981–82 Seattle 80 80 36.0 .486 .225 .734 3.1 6.9 2.2 0.5 23.4
1982–83 Seattle 80 80 34.5 .477 .047 .751 2.6 8.0 2.3 0.3 20.0
1983–84 Seattle 80 80 35.2 .458 .160 .750 2.6 8.4 2.4 0.3 18.7
1984–85 Washington 79 78 37.5 .430 .290 .725 2.5 7.7 2.3 0.4 20.0
1985–86 Washington 77 67 29.7 .428 .259 .734 2.2 5.9 1.2 0.2 13.5
1986–87 Atlanta 33 0 14.6 .363 .278 .675 1.2 4.2 0.5 0.2 4.5
Career 825 385 31.1 .461 .238 .756 2.7 5.6 2.0 0.4 17.1
All-Star 2 1 20.5 .429 .000 1.000 1.5 6.5 1.0 0.0 14.0

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1976 Golden State 11 – 16.2 .353 – .667 1.3 2.4 1.0 0.0 6.7
1977 Golden State 10 – 18.4 .500 – .857 1.5 2.5 0.8 0.1 8.8
1978 Seattle 22 – 31.9 .477 – .726 3.9 4.0 2.0 0.5 18.3
1979† Seattle 17 – 36.4 .476 – .709 4.1 3.7 2.0 0.6 26.7
1980 Seattle 15 – 37.6 .514 .200 .721 4.0 5.6 2.3 0.5 23.7
1982 Seattle 8 – 39.4 .441 .333 .786 3.3 8.1 1.6 0.6 26.3
1983 Seattle 2 – 40.5 .553 .000 .867 3.5 4.0 2.5 0.0 32.5
1984 Seattle 5 – 43.0 .510 .333 .714 2.4 11.4 1.6 0.6 23.4
1985 Washington 4 4 39.8 .423 .300 .750 2.0 5.0 1.3 0.3 18.0
1986 Washington 5 5 39.8 .481 .100 .778 2.0 6.6 2.2 0.0 18.2
Career 99 9 32.5 .476 .231 .737 3.1 4.7 1.8 0.4 19.5

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "BasketballReference.com Gus Williams page". Archived from the original on February 24, 2009. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
  2. ^ "Gus Williams". NBA.com. Archived from the original on July 27, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2006.
  3. ^ "Gus wins comeback player award". The News Tribune. June 16, 1982. p. B-4. Retrieved April 13, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ BASN's Hometown Hero Archived December 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, by Peter Vecsey; published on March 13, 2007
  5. ^ Nussbaum, Danielle. "iZombie recap: 'The Exterminator,'" Entertainment Weekly, Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2023.

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