Once upon a time, Deron Williams stood at one of the absolute apex of the NBA. Alongside Chris Paul, Williams was locked in a fierce, year-in, year-out debate over who truly deserved the title of the league's premier Point God. From his early days taking the Utah Jazz to deep postseason runs to earning a five-year, $98.7 million contract with the Brooklyn Nets (then New Jersey Nets), Williams commanded the game with a blend of power, handle, and court vision that made him a superstar.
Yet, by the time his career quietly sputtered out following a disastrous turn in the 2017 NBA Finals when he was Kyrie Irving's backup with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Williams seemed to vanish completely from the basketball universe.
Appearing on a recent episode of the Above the Rim podcast, the 3x All-Star opened up about his sudden exit to Dwight Howard , revealing that he instead turned to golf after retirement. He didn't choose to play basketball overseas like Dwight because an agonizing mix of personal trauma, family separation, and the sheer humiliation of his final playoff performance drove him into complete isolation from the sport.
"I think it was the family issue," he said about not wanting to be away from his kids, but also confessed, "I feel like I had a lot of shame. Like, I think around like just how I stopped playing… like my last like hurrah was me going 2-for-13 in the Finals. So that s*** like… I almost felt like shame, and like that's kind of why I disappeared from like basketball. I hated basketball. Like, I didn't watch it."
In the 2017 Finals, Deron only averaged 1.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.0 point, shooting 2-of-16 (12.5%) from the field in 5 games.
After that, Williams divorced himself from basketball. He didn't even encourage his kids to watch his games or play the sport themselves.
While that was professionally humiliating, Williams explained that his emotional decline began years earlier during a tumultuous run with the Brooklyn Nets, where constant organizational instability and injuries chipped away at his passion.
"I think in Brooklyn I started hating it," Williams shared. "I played for four coaches in three and a half years… We never had like consistency… Always having a different system every year. Like, as a point guard, that's not ideal. And so again, home life's f***ed up. Me and my, you know, now ex-wife were like… one year she took the kids and went back to Utah. So, we were like kind of separated and just… it's the first time not having my kids… that's kind of the year where s*** went downhill for me because I was in a bad place, 'cause like my kids is everything to me."
The separation from his ex, Amy, and their four children severely damaged his mental well-being, stripping away his focus just as chronic ankle and wrist injuries, along with surgeries and tendinitis, began robbing him of his elite athleticism.
When asked why he never considered playing overseas to resurrect his career after the NBA, Williams noted that his physical and emotional decline made stepping away the only option.
"My kids didn't… none of my kids played basketball… I didn't force them," Williams explained about how completely he shut out the game.
The depth of Williams' post-retirement shame is especially striking when contextualized against how high his peak was. Between the 2006 and 2013 seasons, Williams and Chris Paul were frequently neck-and-neck in statistical dominance. During that seven-year run, Williams closely competed with CP3 in key counting stats while generating significant scoring and playmaking for his offenses through scoring and assists.
However, where Paul navigated injuries and maintained his superstar trajectory, Williams' career unravelled under a compounding storm of physical breakdowns and personal friction. Allegedly, clashes with legendary Jazz coach Jerry Sloan led to Sloan's resignation and Williams' subsequent trade to New Jersey in 2011. Though the Nets handed him a maximum contract in 2012, his body repeatedly failed him.
By 2015, Brooklyn opted to buy out the remaining $27.5 million on his contract just to move on, a deal so massive that the Nets were still paying him about $5.5 million annually through 2020.
Brief revival stints with the Dallas Mavericks offered glimpses of his old self, but by the time he joined LeBron James and the Cavaliers for a 2017 playoff push, the rapid decline was unavoidable.
During the 2017 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, Williams went scoreless for most of the series. His lone points in the entire series came in Game 4, where he had five points, the exact statistical footnote that left him feeling overwhelmed by shame.
Now years removed from his playing days, Williams has gradually found peace without basketball through his kids, combat sports, and traveling, but not as an athlete. But his candid admission offers a somber look at how quickly an elite NBA career can end, not just physically, but emotionally.
Trending Articles
The post "She Took the Kids and Went": Deron Williams Gets Candid on Family Separation and Finals Shame That Led to His Disappearance appeared first on EssentiallySports . Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
