Deron Williams Injured In His Return to Brooklyn

There is a phrase that I love to say to people…

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Deron Williams had to have the Brooklyn Nets game on the calendar. As soon as he signed on the dotted line for the $27.5 million for his buyout, he had to dream about coming to New York to stick it to his former team. A lot of high profile players had done it.

LeBron James had to go back to Cleveland after going to Miami.

Chris Bosh had to go to Toronto after going to Miami.

DeAndre Jordan had to go to Dallas after going BACK to Los Angeles.

Deron Williams could do it, right?

Nope. Deron Williams was who the Brooklyn fans thought he was. It was all over the Barclays Center…

WHERE IS DERON?!

This is definitely a Christmas present that would be sent back to the store for a return. It’s a fruitcake passed around the family. Definitely a representative of a family member that you dread seeing over the holiday season. This is an article with a card saying…

Please let it go, man!

How many times do we all have to go over the bad marriage between Deron Williams and the Brooklyn Nets? How many times do we have to go over the injuries, the bad contract, and the struggles of Deron Williams? How many times do we have to rehash the bad feelings, the rumors, the innuendo?

How about one more time!

Who starts it this time? Wait for it… Deron Williams.

Instead of saying “no comment” or that he was sick of talking about the Nets organization, he decided to sit down with Michael Lee of Yahoo! Sports to talk about his impact (or lack thereof)… again.

“It took a lot out of me, man, those three years. Some of the hardest in my life,” Williams told Yahoo! Sports of his time in Brooklyn. “Made me question if I even  wanted to play basketball when I was done with that contract.”

Boy, it must have taken a lot out of Deron Williams to come back to Brooklyn. I mean, packing bags and getting on that private jet to play your former team. Must have been the hardest plane trip of his life. I know he was questioning if even wanted to make the trip inside the arena to watch the game after backing out with (wait for it…) a hamstring injury. Wink, wink.

“I wish I wouldn’t have been hurt. I wish I would’ve played better and people didn’t feel like I was just stealing money. That’s the last thing I want people to feel like,” Williams told Yahoo. “It didn’t work out the way anyone had hoped.”

You know, Deron, I wish you hadn’t gotten hurt… again. Then maybe you would have played better and allowed people to see that you were not stealing money. Now by not playing the “revenge” game that all NBA fans look for when players change teams, the Brooklyn Nets fans, or anyone who had a problem with Deron Williams, have a perception that sure looks like reality on the night everyone vested in the situation was looking forward to.

Deron Williams not playing would not be such a big deal if he didn’t take a classless shot at the organization about the coaching situation…

“I wanted to be somewhere where my coach was going to be there. It wasn’t going to be up in the air, year after year. You see here, he’s not going anywhere,” Williams told Yahoo! nodding in the direction of Carlisle. “I’ve heard a lot of great things about him as a coach, and that was a big part of it. The system has definitely been great. Still learning but it’s definitely helped me, helped my confidence.”

This is probably part of the reasons why Deron Williams fell out so badly in Brooklyn. When he signed that contract, he underestimated the responsibilities that came with it and it upset everyone. When you are labeled a superstar, teams win because of you and lose because of you. Plus you play in New York. Ball players play in the Big Apple. What’s more, they KNOW their basketball.

Deron Williams, to this day, still hasn’t figured it out.

Williams was just as much a problem to the Nets’ coaching changes as anyone in the Nets organization. Maybe even more so. Avery Johnson should have never been fired in the middle of the season a few years back. It’s real funny how Williams was labeled as the “reason” that Johnson got fired.

What did the Brooklyn Nets do? They protected him, fiercely.

I’m not the biggest fan of Lionel Hollins, but he defended Deron Williams until the end, even though Williams’s production dropped like the Stock Market in the middle of a recession. Deron Williams takes this time to throw him and everyone in the organization under the bus.

This is what the legacy of Deron Williams will be, sadly, if he does not change. Bottom line, like it or not, people believe that Williams caved under the pressure of playing in New York. I know it, fans knew it, the organization knew it. Most importantly, deep down Deron Williams knew it…

“It’s cool. There’s a lot of people, I guess, who aren’t built for New York,” Williams told Yahoo!. “New York is not for everybody.”

Maybe that’s why Deron Williams didn’t play. It’s New York.