Raef lands with old pal: Gets big boost from Williams

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Raef lands with old pal: Gets big boost from Williams
By Steve Bulpett
Monday, October 27, 2003

Eric Williams and Raef LaFrentz were developing a decent relationship during
the latter's rookie year with the Nuggets. But the friendship was thrown into
overdrive by necessity on Feb. 25, 1999.

     LaFrentz went up for a dunk against the Mavericks as an impressive
rookie. The lockout-shortened season was finally getting warm and the third
overall pick was tossing in 13.8 points and pulling down 7.6 rebounds with
1.42 blocked shots for Denver. When he came down, he was down and out for the
rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

     Williams was one of those who helped him to the dressing room in Dallas.
Later, when LaFrentz was visibly depressed after hearing the diagnosis,
Williams, who had suffered the same injury to his right knee a season earlier,
knew he was about to become a truly close friend to the rookie.

     ``I was crushed,'' said LaFrentz, now reunited on the Celtics with
Williams after his trade here last week. ``I broke down and then I called my
folks. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were in the locker room at the
old Reunion Arena, and guys came in and everybody was like, whoa. Right then
Eric grabbed me and started working on me.''

     Williams knew the deal before the doctors even got to LaFrentz.

     ``I'm sitting there watching and I could tell the way his weight shifted
what he'd done,'' said Williams, who was hurt in his fourth game as a Nugget.
``I was like, damn. So I got over there and helped him into the locker room.
After that I had to wait until they broke the news to him because I didn't
want to talk ACL before they knew. That whole situation was messed up. He had
got through training camp and was coming into his own. He was looking good out
there.

     ``I just knew I had to do something. I had gone through the surgery the
year before, and he didn't even know I had been through it. I went over to him
and told him, `The biggest thing you're going to have to overcome is the
mental thing. You're going to do the physical stuff. They're going to get you
the best surgeon and you're going to do the rehab, but there's going to be a
mental aspect that you're going to have to defeat to regain that confidence
back.'

     ``That was pretty much the first thing that I said to him, and from that
he asked me a series of questions. Later on we did rehab together. We were in
the gym together, and I think it helped him that he could see where I was and
the road he was going to be taking and that I was getting a lot better. He was
seeing it through me.''

     LaFrentz is more than thankful. More than 4 years later, he recalls the
events and the assistance clearly.

     ``Eric was awesome,'' he said. ``I mean, that was definitely the lowest
part of my entire basketball career and one of the lowest parts of my life.

     ``At that point you're a rookie and you don't really know what's coming
off. You think your career might be really hurt. And Eric was right there with
me pretty much the whole time. He was awesome. He was a source of support and
strength, and I developed a good relationship with him. I'll always feel good
about that. I had a whole support staff with the Nuggets, but for a player to
do that . . . well, Eric's a great man.

     ``It might have been therapeutic for him, too, because he was still
coming through it. We worked out a lot together. It was great. Eric's a great
teammate.''

     And now Raef LaFrentz and Eric Williams are teammates again.
Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx