Williams' Undrafted Dream

South East Melbourne centre Alan Williams has managed to tread a path most undrafted players dream of.

After failing to earn an NBA contract straight out of college Williams took his talents to China. After one season with the Qingdao DoubleStar Eagles in the CBL he returned Stateside ready for an NBA opportunity.

That opportunity came with his hometown Phoenix Suns. Initially earning a 10-day contract, Williams would end up playing for the side for three years, including playing a career-high 47 games in the 2016-17 season.

After his time with the Suns he signed a two-way contract with the Brooklyn Nets, earning All-NBA G-League First Team honours in 2019.

“I like to say those were my favourite days in basketball, those three years I had with the Suns,” Williams told One-On-One. “They really helped to shape who I am today and how I make my decisions.

“Being from Phoenix, Arizona I took a lot of pride in pulling on that jersey every day.

“I really relished the opportunity to be in front of my hometown fans and all my family.”

That three-year stint with his hometown side almost never happened according to Williams, who says he felt a difficult first workout put pay to any chance he had of representing the side.

Fresh off of his first season in China Williams was invited to try out for the side he’d grown up watching, but a lack of conditioning almost derailed the opportunity before it began.

It was only thanks to a second chance from then Suns coach Earl Watson that he managed to impress.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Alan Williams has a near dbl-dbl at the half (15 &amp; 9).<a href="https://twitter.com/Suns?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Suns</a> on top of <a href="https://twitter.com/Bucks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Bucks</a> 47-42 on <a href="https://twitter.com/NBATV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBATV</a>.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBARapidReplay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBARapidReplay</a> <a href="https://t.co/M4i3J4eq9s">pic.twitter.com/M4i3J4eq9s</a></p>&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/835967828943597568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“I got back from China in mid-to-late February and I remember having a workout 8-10 days after I got back,” Williams reflected.

“I hadn’t been working out too much, I didn’t really feel in great shape but my agent called and said ‘the Suns want to work you out’. I was like ‘oh dang, I’d better lace up and get out there’.

“Earl Watson ran the workout and halfway through he stopped it and said ‘this isn’t helping you out, this isn’t helping us out. I can tell you just got back and you’re not in the shape I need you to be in. Come back next week, be in better shape.

“I called my mum and I was like ‘mum I ruined it, my only opportunity to be bale to do this, I can’t believe I did that’.

“I went back in the gym, got right, impressed them enough in that second workout to get a 10-day, from that 10-day I signed a rest of the year deal, played Summer League, signed another season deal and then signed a multi-year deal with them.”