Grant Williams Reflects on ‘Immature’ Hard Foul Jayson Tatum

BOSTON — Grant Williams returned to TD Garden for the second time since departing the Celtics this weekend, sidelined again at the end of a losing Hornets season. Only this time, he’s in the middle stages of recovery from an ACL tear that’ll stretch into the summer. He still has several months to go, and the injury gave him time to reflect and assess how he plays the game.

The tear happened on Nov. 23 in Milwaukee, three weeks after his bizarre hard foul on Jayson Tatum in the first of a two-game mini series against Williams’ Hornets. Officials ejected Williams for the hit, Tatum wouldn’t address it post-game until the next night and Jaylen Brown compared it to Ray Lewis coming over the middle. Williams, after that game, called it a play on the ball with no malicious intent. He later joked to NBC Sports Boston that the play would likely cancel a planned dinner between himself and teammates.

Yet when Tatum and Williams met on the floor after Boston beat Charlotte on Friday, they shared a hug. Williams told CLNS Media that he spoke to Tatum and his family earlier this season to make amends.

“Me and J.T. are cool. That’s my dawg, forever,” Williams told CLNS Media. “No matter what happens in our life, I’m gonna have his back and I believe he’s gonna have mine as well. I made an immature act. When that happened, I reflected on it and at the time, I think I kind of brushed it off. It’s helpful that the injury gave me a perspective too. It’s just like making sure you’re not only doing things the right way, but also competing and stuff like that and recklessness. So I was able to have have that conversation and that’s being two mature men, that’s a guy that would do anything for me and I feel like I’d do anything for him as well.”

Williams expects the Celtics to return to the NBA Finals and looks forward to seeing which team will challenge them out of the west. Their three-point shooting ability remains devastating, he noted, and even when Boston misses its shots, they defend. When the Celtics’ playoff run begins on Sunday, he’s expecting few difficulties for them advancing through the east except for potentially one series, Cleveland, if Brown isn’t healthy. They’re ready to win another championship, Williams said.

Then, there’s the summer decisions that’ll follow, a product of stiffer luxury tax penalties on repeater teams like the Celtics and the second apron, which restricts roster flexibility for them. It’s already led to stunning trades like Karl-Anthony Towns to New York and Williams’ former teammate Luka Dončić landing in LA earlier this season. It’ll also force the Celtics, under prospective new owner Bill Chisholm, to make difficult decisions. Williams and his fellow NBPA union representatives negotiated that new CBA with the league, which Williams has stressed will lead to greater competitiveness.

“It’s really just showing the teams that are willing to spend, that are willing to try and compete for a title,” Williams said. “That are willing to make a whole lot of moves, whether it’s a two, three, or four year commitment, and focus on that. Then, you have the younger groups like the OKCs and the Detroits who did a phenomenal job of building up in the draft, so they don’t have to worry about that right now. So I think the second apron has been interesting. It’s something we don’t know the true effects (of) until four, five years from now, and we’ll be able to look back on it and we’ll be able to look back on it and have a couple more dialogues and conversations about how we can improve it.”

Williams didn’t believe Dončić would ever leave Dallas without the Mavs trading him, his potential departure becoming part of the debate over one of the most stunning trades in league history. He was happy he landed in one of two cities, LA or Miami, that he saw Dončić fitting in best with. The trade probably crushed him anyway, Williams said, and he saw Dončić give everything for the Mavericks trying to win.

Nico Harrison and Dallas began their roster-shuffling at the 2024 trade deadline when they traded Williams to Charlotte after he signed a four-year deal with the Mavs the previous summer, one of two moves that helped propel them to the NBA Finals. With a rebuilding team in Charlotte, Williams returned to center late last year before former Celtics assistant Charles Lee, several Boston assistants and Kemba Walker took over the coaching staff. They finished 19-63, devastated again by injuries, but Lee saw small wins throughout and stressed how helpful Walker’s mentorship and film sessions proved for franchise cornerstone LaMelo Ball. They’ll have a 14% shot, the best alongside Utah and Washington, at landing No. 1 prospect Cooper Flagg in June’s NBA Draft.

Williams is focused on his day-to-day, slow rehab process. It’s a difficult and relatively new position for a player who was rarely hurt in his career previously, but it’s given him time to focus on his life off the floor. On Saturday, he attended and hosted part of a basketball charity event in Boston that made him lose his voice.

“(Tatum) will always be family,” Williams said, looking back at the foul incident. “I told his mom, you gotta curse me out soon. I don’t know when it’s gonna happen, but she has to.”