Mo Williams channels Joe Namath (and Billy Hoyle)
Mo Williams (photo. NBA)
Mo Williams must have spent part of his Memorial Day watching White Men Can’t Jump in his Orlando hotel, ’cause after struggling through the first three games of the Cavs/Magic conference finals (17 ppg, 32% FG), he’s suddenly feelin’ himself an awful lot.
“We’re the best team in basketball,” Williams said in an interview today posted by the Associated Press. “(The Magic) deserve respect. They’re a good team. But we’re the best team in basketball. I don’t feel that they’ve had to adjust to us one time in the series.”
Naturally, Mo was then asked if that meant he was guaranteeing a win, and naturally he couldn’t back down from that bait.
“Guarantee we’re going to win the series? Yeah, yeah,” Williams said. “We’re down 2-1. But there’s nobody on this team and definitely not myself that says we’re not going to win this series. Yeah, it’s going to be tough. We know that. We get this game tomorrow, go home, still got home-court advantage. We don’t see ourselves losing two out of three at home.”
Mo has been around the block enough to know that spitting out guarantees like that will put the bulls-eye squarely on him to deliver, and that his words would definitely make it back to Orlando’s locker room; this isn’t like promising an audience of one that he and LeBron would beat King and Duck on the playground.
At the same time, I’ve always thought that guarantees in pro sports get blown out of proportion. Make no mistake: EVERYBODY on both rosters is thinking, “We’re gonna win,” so it’s not like Mo laid down some extra gauntlet here. As for the concept of “bulletin board material,” I would hope the Magic don’t need a boost of motivation when they’re already playing for a shot at the NBA Finals.
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May 25th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
driveatsleep says:
magic in 6!
May 25th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
The Question says:
Right, guarantees are completely overblown. I would be more concerned if a player said “well, we want to win but we probably won’t because the team we’re playing is better.”
With all of the b*llshit interviews these guys have to do you’re bound to hear this all the time. And right, this bulletin board material is also ridiculous. As if players aren’t trying there hardest all the time, and they only play when someone personally calls them out. Give me a break.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Marci says:
Magic in 6!
May 25th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
liukz says:
the writter is a cavs fan
May 25th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
ERIC says:
Does Denver get every call? Carmelo clearly took 4 steps on his first post-up of the second half.. lakers are getting hacked no-calls. it’s amazing they are even in the game.
kobe doesnt get nearly the respect from the refs that lebron does..
May 25th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
that's whats up says:
my advice to JR Smith:
If you hit a 3 with a minute to go in the 3RD!!
Don’t act like everything is everything.
you ain’t done shit yet nukka – play this game out an win it first
May 25th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
BRUCE says:
Should have asked Williams, is this money back guaranteed?
May 26th, 2009 at 12:14 am
rootsradical says:
5 and 6 are on point.
i like the nuggets but there’s a couple guys on that roster that are trying to make me change my mind.
May 26th, 2009 at 12:21 am
quest??? says:
@ #2 u stole my name motha fucker………….. anywayz is mo williams high???? does he have a concussion off that anthony johnson’s elbow??? You are not 0-3 thanks to a one in a million shot lebron made. If the magic win tomorrow, they dont need to win at cleveland to eliminate you
May 26th, 2009 at 1:09 am
Melo2TDot says:
@ Eric: u cant be serious? La gets the majority of the calls (not more than Bron but styll). explain how Melo gets a tech for giving kobe a light hearted chest slep ( they ARE boys afterall)
May 26th, 2009 at 2:19 am
Chaz says:
the tech wasn’t for the chest slap.. it was for fouling kobe on the layup well after the whistle, automatic tech
May 26th, 2009 at 2:21 am
Hmmmmm says:
Mo’s game is not built for this kind of crazy talk…go sit on that 3pt. line and wait for LBJ to throw you the ball
May 26th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Dantzlem9382 says:
if the Cavs go down 3-1 that series is dunn-dadda and i got the lakers winning in 6. Magic vs. Lakers in the finals and im a laker fan but if we see the magic in the finals superman is gonna give us MAJOR problems
May 26th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Kermit the Washington says:
Lakers need to muster whatever it takes to win game 5. Lose that game and it’s essentially over. I think Bynum’s gonna have a great start, and Kobe will have a great finish.
May 26th, 2009 at 10:25 am
QQ says:
You know you’re desperate when you have to do the guarantee shit. I thought we will be the one desperate in this series because your so-called ‘best team in basketball’ will breeze through us, and we will be the one saying the guarantees to make ourselves feel good against your superior squad?
Meanwhile let’s reminisce the words of the Cavs blogger in the blogger faceoff:
‘See you in the Finals. We’ll face our demons there, Cleveland-style. LeBron vs. the Curse of Chief Wahoo. A truly epic clash.
Cavs in 5. 6 at the most. ‘
Down 2-1, your players so desperate to resort to talking shit about guarantees, bandwagon fans now in the Magic side…
Yes, see you in the Finals, Cleveland. See you in the finals.
May 26th, 2009 at 10:55 am
fallinup says:
“We’re the best team in basketball”
Yup. And the best team would be down 3-0 if not for a last second 3 pointer. If I were Van Gundy. I’d have that pasted every in the locker room. It’s time to step on the Cavs throats.
May 26th, 2009 at 11:44 am
doc says:
Its easy to say they COULD be down 0-3 yall,but they was up 20 in both home games so they could be 3-0 if Bron hit some freebies the other night.Mo talking what he supposed to talk.
May 26th, 2009 at 11:56 am
QQ says:
@ doc:
We’re up 2-1.
If not for a last second shot, we’re up 3-0.
All the games, we played with heart and passion.
All the games, we fought to win.
What the fuck did the Cavs do for you to say you could be up 3-0?
Yall up 20 at home both times? Weren’t you the one saying that a 23 point lead in the first half is nothing? You said once or twice a week a team comes back from that lead, so what the magic did is pretty normal.
Now, its all reversed, now yall saying this shit that you were up 20, so you could’ve gone 3-0? Where the fuck is your ‘being up by 20 in the first half is NUTHIN’ argument now?
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.
May 26th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
The Question says:
The real half man half amazing.
You want your name back come see me.
May 26th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
David Brandon says:
@question,
hahahaha! damn, its like that tho?? LOL
just come in an start gorilla-pimpin ppl…
May 26th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
DADDY GREEN says:
Mo betta put up sum numbers 2nite or its curtains. delonte west and big z are slippin too tho it ain’t just mo williams. and if the magic make the finals its lakers in 5 and cleveland will revamp its roster
May 26th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
tim says:
man even Rasheed never guaranteed an entire series win…Mo is crazy…Doesn’ he know it takes a lot of Kryptonite to stop Superman…
May 27th, 2009 at 12:25 am
QQ says:
Magic up 3-1.
GO MO WILLIAMS!!!
June 1st, 2009 at 7:15 pm
JWM says:
I bet most of the readers here don’t even know who Joe Namath is, the sport he played or what he is most famous for.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:49 am
Wholesale nike jordan says:
I like Kobe most among all the supra stars .