With the NBA G League season completed in late March, Lucas Williamson\u2019s mind was locked in on coaching.<\/p>\n
Following his fourth G League season, the local star, who led Whitney Young to a state championship in 2017 and was instrumental in helping Loyola to the Final Four in 2018, was set to coach his former high school travel team, Meanstreets, on Nike\u2019s EYBL circuit.<\/p>\n
Williamson flew home from his final G League game with the Windy City Bulls on Mar. 28. The next day he packed up his hotel room where he had been staying in Schaumburg, jumped in his car and was driving home to Chicago when his agent called.<\/p>\n
\u201cI answered the phone and he said to me, \u2018I don\u2019t want to get your hopes up, but there is a chance you will be getting called up to the [Memphis] Grizzlies,\u2019\u201d Williamson said his agent told him.<\/p>\n
Williamson paused, asked his agent if he was serious, and then said if there was a legitimate chance, he would be heading straight to the gym to make sure he was ready if the call came. Off to the gym he went to get a workout in.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time I was thinking about taking two weeks off of basketball, focusing completely on the coaching because we had a tournament the next weekend,\u201d Williamson said of his Meanstreets schedule. \u201cThat was the mindset I was in \u2014 full coaching mode.\u201d<\/p>\n
But two days after that call from his agent he was back on a plane, headed to Memphis, set to make his NBA debut against the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was surreal,\u201d Williamson said of the NBA call-up. \u201cI think it was surreal, not because of who I was looking at on the floor or who I was playing with or against. It was more so knowing my journey. The red carpet wasn\u2019t rolled out for me. I knew it wouldn\u2019t be. I was expecting my path to be hard. But I wasn\u2019t expecting it to be this hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the previous three seasons, Williamson suffered season-ending injuries in two of them. The one that ended his 2024-25 season led him to question whether he was even going to continue playing basketball. But the 6-4 guard has never let hardships dictate his path.<\/p>\n
Early on in his career it was easy to identify how Williamson would handle adversity. His former high school coach, Tyrone Slaughter, recognized quickly how his bright, young player was never self-absorbed. Slaughter says he never heard Williamson complain and that he was never afraid of the work, always doing so without any promises given to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no job too small or too big for him,\u201d said his former high school coach Tyrone Slaughter. \u201cSo when you talk about going through the G League and staying with it after injuries and not giving up \u2014 and I\u201dm sure there were times where he may have wanted to give up \u2014 he leaned back into what he always has been. He leaned into his willingness to work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following his highly-successful high school career, Loyola head coach Drew Valentine witnessed Williamson\u2019s perseverance firsthand. He coached Williamson for five seasons \u2014 first as an assistant and then as the head coach after taking over for Porter Moser.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since I met Lucas he\u2019s been a person who has just been incredibly process oriented,\u201d Valentine said. \u201cMost people, especially nowadays, want instant gratification, instant microwavable success. For him, everything has been step by step and process-driven. He\u2019s never allowed adversity to get in the way of his process or the belief he has in himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williamson took a step back last summer and sat down with his agent to discuss his future. He came to the conclusion that he didn\u2019t want to be 50 or 60 years old and wake up wondering if he pulled the plug too quickly on his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believed I still had the tools that impact winning,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI have an immense belief and confidence in myself of what I can bring to a team. I decided to go back to the G League.\u201d<\/p>\n
The grind of being a basketball vagabond in the NBA G League is a chore to navigate.<\/p>\n
This past season, he admits, was not one of his better ones. His shooting numbers were down. He didn\u2019t see eye-to-eye with his Memphis Hustle coach, which included a couple of self-described \u201crun-ins,\u201d before he was traded. His confidence had slipped.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot that comes with it,\u201d Williamson said of playing in the G League. \u201cThere is an immense mental load you\u2019re dealing with in the G League. The G officially stands for Gatorade, but the G really stands for the grind. I was struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trade to the Windy City Bulls from the Memphis Hustle was a blessing. He was soon playing more minutes, finally getting into a rhythm, and the confidence returned. With the confidence, along with all the winning attributes he brings to a team, there was a bit of a mini, late-season renaissance for Williamson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hope is, the thing that keeps you going, is that you are one call away from your dream,\u201d Williamson said of playing in the G League.<\/p>\n
Williamson scored two points in eight minutes in that NBA debut against the Knicks. Overall, in the seven games with Memphis to close the season, he averaged a whopping 32 minutes a game while putting up 10.4 points a game.<\/p>\n
Williamson said all he was concerned about was focusing on the opportunity that was given and to try and take advantage of it. He was of the belief that he simply needed to go out and perform and then let other people \u2014 coaches, scouts, front offices \u2014 do their job in seeing the value he brings.<\/p>\n
But he also made sure to appreciate the experience, knowing how unparalleled of a basketball opportunity this was for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at it as this is special and I am taking in every single moment,\u201d Williamson said of his two weeks in the NBA. \u201cBeing one of less than 5,000 players to have ever played in the NBA is super humbling.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he waits to see what happens next in his playing career, hoping his brief NBA run opened eyes, Williamson is back in the gym, simultaneously training for what might be ahead for him as a player while also coaching Meanstreets\u2019 16U team.<\/p>\n
Williamson said he first heard of the opportunity to coach with Meanstreets in January. He was immediately intrigued by what program director Tim Anderson, who coached Williamson during his own Meanstreets days, had to say.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was honestly something I couldn\u2019t pass up and just made a lot of sense,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cIt was a program I was a part of, and I liked the idea of doing my best in giving back what I\u2019ve learned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Valentine isn\u2019t surprised to see Williamson honing his skills as a coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always viewed Lucas as someone who would be a leader of men,\u201d Valentine said.<\/p>\n
Williamson says he enjoys coaching. He loves the preparation and the adrenaline he gets before games. The 27-year-old will keep the door \u2014 and his mind \u2014 open to the possibility of a coaching career.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now I want to pay it forward, especially with this program,\u201d Williamson said of coaching with Meanstreets. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be at Loyola if it wasn\u2019t for Meanstreets. And if I\u2019m not at Loyola, then none of this happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the NBA G League season completed in late March, Lucas Williamson\u2019s mind was locked in on coaching.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-682411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}