Grant Williams reveals mistake he made in Celtics pre-draft workout

Grant Williams joined the Boston Celtics as the 22nd draft pick in 2019. That was the same summer Kyrie Irving left Boston to team up with Kevin Durant on the Brooklyn Nets. As such, the Celtics were navigating a transitional period with both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown being elevated to the primary two options within Brad Stevens rotation.

Williams played four seasons in Boston before ultimately being moved to the Dallas Mavericks in a three-team sign-and-trade. However, before being drafted by the franchise, Williams thought he'd blown his opportunity. In a recent appearance on the "Club 520" podcast, the three-and-d forward explained the hilarious nature of his pre-draft workout with the Celtics.

"Boston workout," Williams said. "...I'm in the workout. Eric Pascal, me, and Brandon Clarke. Tony Dobbins was a video coordinator at the time. Wasn't an assistant yet. Tony's leading the workout. Tony's like at the clipboard, he's like, 'Yeah, like thinking about the play to draw up. And he drew up the play and he had Brandon Clarke in the corner and me on a dunker.' I was like, 'Yo, like I kind of touched the clipboard.' I was like, 'You sure you want me in the dunker?' You'd rather have the guy with the lob threat in the dunker and me in the corner because I can shoot it. He was like, 'You're right, you're right.' So I took the clipboard, erased it, and then drew it up. So then, boom, that happens. Play works. I'm feeling good."

Unfortunately for Williams, who is well-known to Celtics fans as a talkative and friendly personality, that wasn't the only time he questioned Dobbins during the workout.

"I'm confident," Williams continued. "Next thing happens, they're switching everything. We need a play. Tony's kind of holding the clipboard. He's thinking about a play. I'm like, 'I got it.' Grab the clipboard from him...This is what we got to do. Ain't work. So, then after that, I'm like, all right, cool. I sprained my ankle during the workout. They're like, you don't have to run. You don't have to run. I'm like, I'm running. Got in first. And I think that's the only reason I got drafted there. Because Jay (Larranaga) afterwards... he didn't curse me out, but he pulled me aside and was like, we don't do that here. You don't take the clipboard out of a coach's hand. Because I heard that years prior, Kyrie had done that to Brad."

Ultimately, it would appear he did enough to impress the coaching staff, as he went on to play 288 regular-season games for the franchise, starting 58. He also suited up for 61 postseason contests, including the 2022 run to the NBA Finals, where the team lost to the Golden State Warriors during Ime Udoka's lone season in Boston.

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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Grant Williams reveals mistake he made in Celtics pre-draft workout