[sefant77]

http://www.indystar.com/article/2011...proving-Knicks

Former Pacer Shawne Williams finds new life with improving Knicks

New York Knicks president Donnie Walsh, a believer in second chances, was blunt and to the point with Shawne Williams.

Walsh told Williams, the former Indiana Pacer drafted in the first round in 2006, prior to training camp that if he wanted to try to resurrect what was once a promising basketball career, he had to do two things.

"I made it very clear that he had to cut ties with his associates and that he would be gone if I got the slightest word that he had messed up in any kind of way," Walsh said in a phone interview. "We weren't going to lose anything because his contract is non-guaranteed."

Williams' basketball skills have never been questioned.

Pacers president Larry Bird liked Williams so much coming out of Memphis, he didn't tell his scouting department he was the player he wanted until shortly before their pick -- No. 17 -- came up on draft night.

It was Williams' problems away from Conseco Fieldhouse that hurt him with the Pacers. It was why the Dallas Mavericks sent him home and why his weight ballooned to almost 280 pounds by the time he reported to the New Jersey Nets, who ended up releasing him, after he was traded to the team.

Williams says those days are in the rearview mirror.

He owes it all to Walsh, the former longtime Pacers CEO, for giving him an opportunity not many other people would have offered.

Williams, whose $885,000 contract will become guaranteed on Jan. 10, has gone from being on the inactive list with the Knicks to getting steady minutes.

The forward is averaging 5.8 points and 1.7 rebounds in 13.7 minutes a game. He made 10 of his first 12 3-point attempts.

"I'm super grateful," Williams said after a recent Knicks practice. "I feel like if (Walsh) didn't give me a chance, nobody would have given me a chance. I still have a long way to go, though. I expect more out of myself."

Williams spent more time making headlines off the court than on it during his two seasons with the Pacers.

He had three legal run-ins in less than a year. Williams' problems ranged from a passenger in his car being arrested for having marijuana to a man wanted on murder charges being arrested while leaving Williams' house in a truck registered to him.

"We made a lot of mistakes in how we handled things with Shawne in Indiana," Walsh said. "When he got in trouble, he was with somebody that had something when the police stopped him. Shawne got the headline. It basically reflected poorly on him and poorly on the franchise."

The Pacers, who were fed up with Williams' constant problems, traded him to Dallas in October 2008.

"I definitely let a lot of people down," Williams said. "I let myself down. I was so young. I wasn't taking it as a profession or a job. If I knew what I know now, then I'd probably still be in Indiana."

The trouble didn't stop in Indiana for Williams.

He pled guilty to four misdemeanor drug charges, including the possession and conspiracy to possess a controlled substance -- hydrocodone, a codeine-based syrup -- last year in Memphis.

Williams said it was easier than he thought to sever ties with the same people who watched over him so that he could concentrate on basketball while growing up in the rough part of Memphis.

"I had to cut ties with everybody, focus on myself," said Williams, whose weight is down to 230 pounds. "I had to be selfish. I needed to get myself back together and work on things. There's no place I'd rather be than in the NBA. It feels great to be back."