The hype of Jason Williams in 1999

[pandiani17]

I remember I started folllowing the league in the 1999-2000 season, and there was this hype around Jason William from Sacramento. He was in the cover of magazines, in commercials, etc. By the time he was traded to Memphis it had all fizzled out, but I would like to know how was the hype his rookie season (98-99)? Did people really expect him to be that good after college? Or was it a shock to people to see his passes and his impact?

[1987_Lakers]

Yea, I remember him being in tons of commercials as a kid.

[Thorpesaurous]

I was in college. He wasn't expected to be that good coming out. It wasn't so much the commercials though, as it was the absolute apex of ESPN's Sportscenter. It felt like every morning you didn't have to wait long to see the Kings highlight package just to see what crazy pass or dribble move he made. They weren't on TV much. And if they were it was late at night. There's no instant highlight package like YouTube. So it was pretty much every morning you'd throw on SC while getting dressed for school or work. You'd catch the game package in the first segment. And then they'd show it somewhere else in the show, like Top 10 plays of the night or whatever. And it didn't really matter your schedule, because they just played SC every hour on the hour all day.

The Kings were also a ton of fun. Webber and Divac are among the best passing bigs ever. They were playing horns sets before anyone else with the two bigs on the elbows. And they had some of the early floor spacing concepts with guys like Peja on the wing. So it was sort of a perfect situation for everyone. The move to the Grizzlies put him in a worse situation, on a worse team. And the Kings got better with Bibby's more controlled shooting game. That led people to start wondering how effective he was beyond being wildly entertaining. He's also a guy who probably just wasn't physically designed to play in the league. His body was constantly breaking down with stuff like knees and ankles.

Those early highlight days were similar to the highs of young Blake Griffin and Vince Carter.

[Thorpesaurous]

His being high school teammates with Randy Moss, and Moss exploding in the NFL, definitely helped, and this Nike Dukes of Hazard commercial is an absolute all timer.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJzD6DtTKd0

[Nowoco]

Style over substance really. Very flashy and great for highlight reels but he wasn't a good point guard. He was a worse shooter than Jason Kidd but didnt have the IQ, toughness or defense to make up for it like Kidd did. Mike Bibby took the Kings to the next level where J-Will never would have. The elbow pass in the rookie all-star game was fire though.

His uniform was one of the biggest sellers around the peak of his popularity.