With the Celtics and Hornets meeting for a back-to-back in Charlotte, it was a rare opportunity for former teammates to catch up. Originally, Grant Williams prepared food for some of his old Celtics friends for dinner after Friday‘s game. It was a chance to bond amongst old friends at Williams‘ home as the C’s and Hornets were set to play Friday then Saturday.
But after Williams fouled Jayson Tatum on a hard play, leading to a flagrant-2 foul and ejection, his old C‘s teammates likely aren’t going to want to break bread. Talking to NBC Sports Boston’s Kayla Burton after the game, Williams revealed what meal he had prepared for the visiting Celtics.
“I would assume most of the guys will not be coming over for dinner tonight,” Williams said. “I‘ll talk to them again tomorrow. I had wings and stuff prepared, so it‘s kind of funny that, welp, the game ended that way. But I‘ll see them tomorrow again. We‘ll compete again. We‘re on different sides now, so we’re going to have to compete.”
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So, unfortunately, it sounds like Williams is going to have a decent amount of leftovers. The Celtics weren’t pleased with their former teammate, including Jaylen Brown saying he believed the foul was intentional and called it a football play. Brown was the first Celtic to confront Williams on the ground after he fouled Tatum.
Williams played the first four seasons of his career with the Celtics after getting drafted in 2019. But the C‘s didn’t want to pay him a new contract, so they worked out a sign-and-trade with the Mavericks. Then the Mavs traded Williams at last year‘s deadline to his hometown Hornets, where he’s been ever since. Williams made plenty of friends during his time in Boston, including Tatum. Williams stressed he‘s still “close friends” with Tatum, adding he believe that they‘re good after the hard foul.
Williams wasn‘t the only Hornets player ejected from Friday’s game as Miles Bridges was also tossed with 33.9 seconds left in the game. The Hornets played the Celtics close throughout the game, powered by making 39.6% of their 3-pointers. But they imploded down the stretch, which included Williams getting ejected. Now, the C‘s and Hornets will meet up at 6 p.m. Saturday to finish off the back-to-back, so that’s at least an interesting wrinkle for the upcoming game.
“I don‘t think anybody thought it was a malicious intent by any means just because you don’t see anybody running up to me,” Williams told reporters. “JB was frustrated because you don’t want to hurt your teammate and stuff like that, and I understand that. There was nothing, in my mind, that difficult or intentional.”
