Oklahoma City Thunder wing Jalen Williams is comfortable in his skin

The 2019 ESPN 100 basketball recruiting rankings included several high school superstars who have gone on to make their presence known in these NBA playoffs: Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Maxey, Cole Anthony, Jaden McDaniels, Isaac Okoro, Precious Achiuwa and Jaime Jaquez Jr. A three-star prospect who didn’t make the list is now a rising NBA star who is making an impact on the postseason: Oklahoma City Thunder guard/forward Jalen Williams.

Considering his unexpected journey to the NBA and now the playoffs, an appreciative yet confident Williams is still pinching himself.

“It’s more of a mind trip, just how fast it happened,” Williams told Andscape. “It’s hard to really put into words, but it was kind of just crazy that, especially with the COVID year and just how hectic that was to then bounce back the next year and have the season I had at Santa Clara and then being in the NBA a couple months later, it is crazy. And then now you fast-forward again and you’re in the playoffs.

“It’s a blessing. Something that I thank God for. But it is wild. Sometimes you kind of have to take a step back and just look at how far you came a little bit. But it is definitely a mind trip sometimes because it just happened so fast.”

Williams was born in Denver on April 14, 2001, and his family moved to the Phoenix-area when he was about 7. His parents Ronald and Nicole Williams are U.S. Air Force veterans who met while playing basketball at the academy. They served in the Air Force for 24 and 12 years, respectively, serving in South Korea, Japan and Germany, according to The Oklahoman.

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault believes Williams has brought military and family values into his daily work ethic.

“He’s from a military family and a lot of discipline in the home,” Daigneault said. “His parents work full time. They drive an hour to work still. I’m a parent now. It been interesting to learn from his self-confidence. He comes from a very strong home foundation with his parents being very, very good people that raised [their kids] in a very structured way. But they’ve also given him clearly a lot of space to be himself.

“And so, some of the self-confidence is what I’m most impressed with. But it’s not like this wild artistic. He’s very disciplined. He’s a hard worker, he’s very coachable. He’s a great teammate. He’s very structured in that way, and then he really touches up the edges with all the other stuff.”

Williams has built a reputation with the Thunder of being very self-confident. He credits his parents for his high self-esteem.

“My mother is a lot more outspoken and confident than me,” Williams said. “With both my parents, the biggest thing was being comfortable in who I am. Both of my parents were telling me that I was special. It was the same thing with my brother and my sister. It’s something that they kind of instilled in us. When your parents give you that confidence early, it’s hard to kind of shake it.”

Williams grew about eight inches while at Perry High School in Gilbert, Arizona, between his sophomore and senior season. He was 6-feet-3 when he averaged 25 points per game during his senior year during the 2018-19 season. The 2019 Chandler Unified School District Player of the Year was not ranked among the nation’s top boys basketball players by ESPN. The three-star recruit was the ninth ranked basketball player in Arizona, according to 247Sports. With no Power 5 scholarship offers, he signed with mid-major Santa Clara University.

Williams averaged 7.7 points as a freshman under the tutelage of head coach Herb Sendek. Nothing at that time said NBA prospect, but that changed during the next two seasons as he became a two-time All-West Coast Conference selection. Williams averaged 18 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, including 41% from 3-point range during his junior season in 2021-22. He entered his name in the 2022 NBA draft with one year of eligibility remaining.

“J-Dub and Herb Sendek were a perfect marriage,” Williams’ agent Bill Duffy, who played at Santa Clara, told Andscape. “The development, encouragement and support he received was exactly what J-Dub needed. J-Dub was allowed to develop his full game and now you see the results. He is turning into one of the best young players in the NBA.”

Williams wasn’t considered much of a draft prospect entering the 2021-22 season. But by the 2022 NBA draft, the Thunder selected him with the 12th overall pick after his stellar junior season. Inside The Thunder, however, described Williams’ selection as “far from a popular pick.”

As a rookie Williams averaged 14.1 points on 52.1% from the field, 4.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and a rookie-best 1.3 steals during the 2022-23 season. The two-time Western Conference Rookie of the Month winner was named to the 2023 NBA All-Rookie first team and had 17 games where he scored 20 or more points.

Williams said belief from the Thunder organization and being a star at Santa Clara boosted his confidence that he could succeed early in the NBA.

“The coaching staff and everybody that was here kind of threw me in those positions really early and I think that gave me a lot of confidence,” Williams said. “They obviously trust me to be in those situations for me when I was a rookie. And I think doing those three years of college also gave me a lot of confidence.”

The expectations for Williams, All-Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, heralded rookie Chet Holmgren and the Thunder entering this season were to compete for a playoff seed. The Thunder, however, did much more than that as they finished first in the Western Conference, becoming the youngest team in NBA history to earn a top playoff seed. Williams played a key role in that success as he averaged 19.1 points on 54% shooting, including 42.7% from 3-point range, 4.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game this season.

Daigneault believes there aren’t many NBA players that are as well-rounded as Williams, and he has a phrase to describe it.

“I’ve named it now, ‘The Jalen Williams framework,’ ” Daigneault said. “He can shoot 3s. He can play off the ball as a cutter, runner, floor-spacer. He could play on the ball as a three-level creator. He can get to the rim. And then on the other end of the floor, he’s guarding the whole floor. And if that’s your framework and you apply that to the league, name all the other players that check the boxes at that level. It’s a very short list.”

“He has special talent,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.

Williams averaged 21.6 points on 52.9% shooting, 7.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game in a first-round series sweep of the New Orleans Pelicans. The Dallas Mavericks, however, have limited him to 16 points on 40.8% shooting, 6.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists in five games of their second-round series. The Mavericks took a 3-2 lead in the best of seven series with a 104-92 victory in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points, but no other member of Thunder scored over 13.

Williams and the Thunder face elimination during Game 6 in Dallas on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

“There is a lot that we can take away from this past game that was really good,” Williams said. “I think we got a lot of stuff that we wanted to accomplished and just kind of lost the game. We know it’s a tough task going over there and winning, but now it’s kind of like that first to best out of three series and that’s how we’re treating it.”

Williams and the Thunder play in a pivotal Game 6 against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.

“We can be as good as we want to be as long as we hold each other accountable, continue to play the right way and keep the outside noise on the outside,” Williams said.

Music artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Janet Jackson, Future, Brooks & Dunn and Jelly Roll will be performing at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans this summer. Smoothie King security guards may have confused Williams with a band member as he calmly walked by wearing a black headpiece with three rows across his face, black leather pants and a black shirt with the rest of the Thunder before a game April 29. That outfit was mocked on social media by fans.

But by the time the Thunder eliminated the Pelicans with a 106-85 victory in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series that night, Williams’ all-round performance of 21 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists took precedence over his daring outfit.

During Game 3 of that Pelicans series on April 27, Williams wore a unique hoodie that enclosed much of his face and included a circular bedazzled opening for his eyes, nose and mouth. TNT NBA analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said after the game, “What the hell? What is that? He wore that to the game? That’s a real outfit? He must’ve known he was gonna play well. He played well, he looks like a damn idiot.”

An undeterred and confident Williams is certainly aware of his fashion risks and the comments that he attracts. He also gets inspiration from Gilgeous-Alexander, who has been named GQ magazine’s Most Stylish NBA Player twice. It’s also not uncommon to see Williams wear trendy T-shirts over Thunder gear while warming up before games.

So, what is the key to Williams’ fashion choices?

“I just be trying s—,” Williams, 23, said with a laugh. “If I asked my mom where my confidence comes from, she would say her. I just be trying stuff. If helps when you’re teammates with Shai.

“I’m just comfortable in my own skin. I’m not trying to brag on or anything. It’s just kind of how I was raised. And if you put it towards basketball, a lot of it’s just the work you put in gives you a lot of confidence and just far as life. Yeah. I’m just confident.”

Time will tell where Williams’ unexpected road will take him in the NBA. He hopes that long shot NBA prospects view his long odds as inspiration.

“It doesn’t matter what star [rating in recruiting] you are. It really doesn’t matter,” Williams said. “If you can play, the NBA will find you. The right people will see you. Something I hold dear is if you just put your head down and work, good things will happen.”