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Wondery.

1:03

Jeff Eisenberg, there was this video

1:05

that got quite a bit of attention when it was posted

1:07

online a few years ago. A basketball

1:09

video of a kid doing a pretty incredible

1:11

dunk.

1:12

Can you describe what's in it?

1:15

So Mikey Williams was going

1:17

into his freshman year of high school

1:20

and he's alone or pretty close

1:22

to alone in a gym and he

1:25

throws a lob pass up to himself, lets

1:27

it bounce off the floor, catches

1:29

it in the air, does a 360

1:32

behind the back move and throws

1:34

it down just effortlessly. And

1:36

at the end of that video, he says,

1:38

give me my mill. He was hoping that

1:41

that video would put him over the 1

1:43

million mark for Instagram followers.

1:46

And sure enough, it went viral

1:49

and he surpassed the million mark and

1:51

his family celebrated with a cake with the

1:54

number one followed by six zeros

1:56

on it.

1:57

Hitting a million is like an American

1:59

dream. and everybody wants to hit him in the fatherly

2:01

way. So I'm off to play with everybody to rock

2:04

with me. That's one million! And

2:07

it's just a really good example of how

2:09

his rise wasn't entirely organic.

2:11

It was something that his family had been working

2:14

towards long before he started his high

2:16

school basketball career. By

2:21

the time he was just 14 years old, Mikey

2:24

Williams was considered by some to be the

2:26

best player his age in the country. A

2:29

future NBA star in the making.

2:31

Mikey Williams!

2:32

He's cleaned it up! Mikey Williams

2:35

can vote on you and over you

2:37

in games. He is a gamer. Watch

2:39

him just come in from the right side of your screen, number

2:41

eight. And his fame was amplified

2:43

by, or perhaps to some extent caused

2:46

by, his huge following on social

2:48

media. Alright, it's Hot 97, number

2:50

one for hip-hop.

2:50

It's Tiki Torbaz and a special

2:52

guest came through today. Mikey Williams!

2:56

How are you?

2:56

I'm good this morning. But over

2:59

time, questions about his actual basketball

3:01

abilities began to pile up.

3:03

And then, his life took a very

3:05

dark turn. A judge today ordered former

3:07

San Ysidro High School basketball star

3:10

Mikey Williams to stand trial on six

3:12

felony gun charges.

3:13

The 19-year-old is accused of assault with

3:15

a firearm and shooting at an occupied

3:17

vehicle in March outside his home in Hengol.

3:20

Today, reporter Jeff Eisenberg

3:22

brings us the story of Mikey Williams' dramatic

3:25

rise and fall and explains why

3:27

his future is now hanging in the balance.

3:30

From wondering, I'm Anders Keltow. It's Wednesday,

3:32

November 22nd, and this is You

3:35

Lead. So,

3:39

Jeff, you recently wrote a long feature story

3:42

about Mikey Williams for Yahoo Sports. This

3:44

is a kid who, at one point, was considered

3:46

the top basketball player his age in the country, a

3:48

guy who seemed to be destined for greatness. Before

3:51

we actually dive into his story, I

3:53

just wonder if you could tell us how you see his

3:55

story now. What kind of a tale is

3:58

the Mikey Williams story? I think the

4:00

best way to put it is it's a cautionary tale.

4:02

It's the type of story that we've seen all too often

4:05

in recent years as prospects are hyped,

4:07

as can't miss phenoms at a younger and younger

4:09

age. And sometimes it's just too much too

4:12

soon. And now for Mikey, it's

4:14

not only a basketball story, he's facing

4:16

serious allegations and the possibility

4:18

of spending up to 30 years in prison. All

4:21

right, well, let's start with the

4:23

rise part of his rise and fall

4:25

story. Jeff, take us back to Mikey

4:27

Williams's earliest days and tell us

4:29

about his family background and how he first

4:32

got into hoops. Yeah, he had some pretty

4:34

good bloodlines. His mother, Cherise,

4:36

played softball at Hampton University

4:38

and is still the MIAC's all-time

4:41

single season leader in doubles and RBIs. His

4:43

dad was a all San Diego

4:46

high school basketball player, probably

4:48

would have played at a high level Division I program

4:50

if he didn't run into some academic issues before

4:53

his senior year of high school. So

4:56

he was kind of destined to be an athlete from day

4:58

one. Your

4:58

father played basketball, and

5:00

I asked him at dinner, it's so interesting. I

5:02

said, when did he know that this was for him?

5:05

And he

5:05

said something around the age of two. Kind

5:07

of say that, but I say it really.

5:10

He had a basketball and his hands from diapers.

5:12

He played football too. He really had

5:14

possibilities in both of those sports.

5:17

Basketball was my second sport. I cared about football.

5:19

And I just ended up blowing up in basketball

5:22

first. So I was like, I might

5:24

as well just stick to this.

5:26

Eventually it became clear that basketball

5:29

was his pathway and he started to focus

5:31

on that exclusively by middle school. And

5:33

when would you say he first burst onto

5:36

the national basketball scene? The

5:38

summer before seventh grade, his

5:40

youth team played in a national tournament

5:43

and had a chance to play against the North

5:46

Coast Blue Chips. That was Bronnie

5:48

James' team and a hand-picked collection

5:51

of other middle school stars from across

5:53

the country. And so, you know, this was the

5:55

only middle school team in America that had cameras

5:58

on it, had autograph seekers, you know. was

6:00

basically treated like a little professional team.

6:03

And not only did Mikey's team

6:05

beat them, but Mikey was the best player

6:07

on the floor that day. Here's

6:10

a step back three that's down, man, by

6:12

Mikey Williams. Mikey can

6:14

drain it. He's got deep range, shot

6:17

mechanics are clean. He caught

6:19

LeBron's attention at that tournament.

6:21

He and Bronny kind of sparked up a friendship.

6:24

And by the following summer, Mikey

6:26

had an invitation to play with Bronny.

6:28

And that was a big deal because

6:31

the cameras were going to follow Bronny

6:33

wherever he went. So

6:36

there was an outsized amount of attention

6:38

on that team. And then on Mikey

6:40

as the best player on that team.

6:43

He was on a text basis

6:45

with LeBron. Me and Bron

6:47

are really talking on business. That's more like, uh, that's

6:49

more like family. I just feel holler at me, I holler at

6:51

him, just awesome. What's good with how you

6:54

been, whatever. Several publications

6:56

named him the best seventh grade basketball

6:59

player in the country. Mixtape

7:01

creator started following him and

7:04

making highlights clips of his best

7:06

jumps and three point shots. And, you know,

7:08

a lot of those videos were

7:10

viewed literally millions of times.

7:13

And I want to see some good,

7:16

high quality, you know,

7:19

bad high school baller content.

7:22

And Mikey is always here

7:24

to provide that. And so he

7:26

became famous, not necessarily

7:29

to your grandma or your mom or your dad,

7:31

but to a very certain

7:34

subtext of America to

7:36

pre-teen and teenage basketball fans.

7:39

He was as big as any basketball player in

7:41

the country. Apologies to all the grandmas out

7:43

there. He spent a lot of time watching seventh grade basketball.

7:46

YouTube. And

7:50

just to clarify here, Jeff, for

7:52

people who don't follow youth basketball super

7:55

closely, this is sort of the reality these

7:57

days for really bright young prospects.

7:59

They are. literally scouted and ranked.

8:02

They're all over the internet, starting when they're 11, 12 years

8:04

old. It's crazy,

8:07

like there are rankings as low as fourth

8:09

grade. And it's

8:11

dangerous in a way, because when

8:13

you put that type of

8:16

hype and that type of pressure on someone

8:18

who is 10, 11, 12 years old, and you

8:20

label them as the next big

8:22

thing in the sport and a can't miss NBA

8:24

prospect, well, here's the truth,

8:27

most of them miss because you don't know how

8:29

they're gonna develop after they're 12, 13, 14 years

8:31

old. So yes,

8:34

Mikey Williams was really, really good

8:37

compared to other seventh and eighth graders at the

8:39

time, but you didn't know if he was

8:41

gonna grow. You didn't know what kind of situation

8:43

he was gonna be in to develop. And so

8:46

the label of a can't miss NBA

8:48

prospect at that age didn't

8:51

do him any favors. Okay, so

8:53

by the time he was in middle school, the hype machine

8:56

around Mikey Williams was already in full gear.

8:59

He'd been named the best basketball player his age in the country.

9:01

He's already all over YouTube and social media. How

9:04

did the Williams family react to his growing

9:06

online fame? Yeah, they weren't very

9:08

cautious about it, to say the least. If

9:11

anything, they kind of fueled Mikey mania.

9:13

They began disseminating carefully

9:16

chosen pictures and videos of

9:18

him on social media. And

9:20

then I can't live without tattoos. I feel like

9:22

I use art. I feel like I'm expressing

9:25

myself. Something where he might be showing off a new tattoo

9:28

in the outfit. He might pose in front

9:30

of a flashy sports car that he wasn't even

9:32

old enough to drive yet. And

9:34

then by the time he was ready to start high school,

9:36

they invited a sports media company over

9:39

time into their home to begin

9:41

filming a reality TV show about him

9:43

and

9:43

the family. Mikey Williams checking

9:45

in, you feel me? Welcome to the house. Smile,

9:47

you're here with me. Come on in now, come on in. So

9:51

everything that they did was

9:53

built to amplify his fame

9:55

as opposed to take a more cautious approach

9:58

to it. Well,

9:59

let's talk.

9:59

a little more about that YouTube reality

10:02

TV show that you mentioned, Jeff, because I watched

10:04

a little bit of it and it is really something.

10:06

Can you just describe the opening scene of

10:08

that show for us?

10:09

The show is called Fear Nothing and

10:12

it opens with just a

10:14

barrage of highlight clips

10:17

of Mikey and

10:18

various news outlets and

10:20

figures piping him up as the next big

10:23

thing. And

10:31

then his first appearance on the show,

10:33

there's a big golden

10:35

red throne on the side of the hillside

10:38

and he walks out, he sits

10:40

down on the throne and they ask, who is Mikey

10:43

Williams? So who is Mikey Williams?

10:45

Your back, and your popcorn,

10:48

and enjoy the show. He says,

10:51

enjoy the show and sits down on the throne

10:53

with his city behind him. It's

10:57

kind of incredible to see that

10:59

type of opening for a kid who at

11:01

this time is what, 14 years old? Yeah, has not

11:04

played his first high school basketball game yet.

11:06

Yeah, it's just wild. Okay, and

11:08

again, just to reiterate, all this is happening before

11:11

Mikey Williams has even played his first high

11:13

school game. Jeff, how does his freshman

11:15

year go and how does

11:18

that freshman season impact his rising celebrity?

11:20

Yeah, so his freshman year he plays

11:23

for his hometown high school team, San

11:25

Ysidro High School, which is looking

11:27

at just one freeway exit north of the

11:29

Tijuana border. And

11:33

that's

11:40

noteworthy because he could

11:42

have gone and played for one

11:44

of the elite prep school programs in the

11:46

country or even a top public

11:48

school in Southern California. But he chooses

11:51

to play for his hometown public

11:53

school. It paints him in a favorable light

11:55

because not many kids of his stature always

11:58

choose to do that.

11:59

A lot of people say San Diego is softer.

12:02

Just so cal and general, and then you got teams

12:04

coming from all over the place. So it was good for us to compete

12:07

against those teams and show people how we get down.

12:09

And I mean, he was just awesome to

12:11

start his freshman year. He had 50 points

12:14

in front of Dwayne Wade in his

12:16

third or fourth game. He

12:19

had 77 points, the San Diego County record

12:21

in his ninth game of this freshman year.

12:23

And it continues to fuel

12:26

his star.

12:27

It feels fine. It feels like, you know,

12:29

I'm human. Celebrities

12:32

started to take notice of him

12:33

and what it was that he was

12:36

achieving. Drake asked

12:37

for his jersey. Young boy, another rapper, began playing

12:40

video games with him and

12:42

struck up a friendship. I got a relationship

12:45

with a few rappers. I got a relationship with

12:47

YB and the A.M. boy. I

12:49

went to the concert. I went to the concert.

12:51

I went to the concert. I went to the concert. I

12:54

went to the concert. I went to the concert. I

12:56

went backstage when I was stuck. I was like,

12:58

who's this? Kevin Durant was another one of his social

13:00

media followers. So, you know, he wasn't

13:02

just famous among kids, but

13:07

he was beginning to build a following that included

13:09

some other pretty big name celebrities. And

13:12

all of it just kind of adds to

13:14

the fable of who is Mikey

13:16

Williams.

13:17

Just as it's fair to say that behind these celebrity

13:19

encounters and viral video highlights

13:22

and behind the YouTube reality show, that

13:24

there was a kid here who was working extremely hard when

13:27

the cameras were off.

13:29

Yeah, he was more than just the

13:31

highlight clips and the reality show. Like,

13:33

there was substance behind that style.

13:36

I spoke to his longtime trainer, and

13:38

he said that Mikey was the person that he saw during

13:41

the COVID pandemic more than anyone else outside

13:43

of his family. They worked together two

13:45

and three times, and those were hard workouts. So

13:48

hard that he'd go run stairs

13:50

after the workouts were over, and his friends

13:53

would be like, are you kidding? We're done. We've worked

13:55

as hard as we could. And the trainer

13:57

even said that they worked out

13:59

on Christmas at 4.

13:59

I am a couple of times so clearly

14:02

Mikey was the kid who wanted this and you

14:04

know was working hard for his goals at that Time all

14:07

right so Mikey Williams is

14:10

achieving these incredible levels of Fame But

14:12

Jeff at the same time you wrote about how

14:15

as his star was rising During his freshman

14:18

year and into his sophomore year of high school There

14:20

was also this growing disconnect between how

14:22

famous he was and how talented

14:25

he actually was as a basketball player Tell

14:27

us about that disconnect So

14:32

If you just followed basketball

14:34

via TikTok and Instagram Mikey

14:37

Williams was everywhere like there were

14:39

not many NBA players who had

14:42

as many viral video clips and sensational

14:45

dunks and step back three-pointers

14:47

as Mikey Williams, but

14:50

if you were a basketball scout

14:53

or a college coach You did not view

14:55

Mikey Williams the same way that

14:57

your average 14 year old might have

14:59

and the reason for that was twofold one

15:02

He wasn't growing you know he was six

15:05

one six two in middle school as

15:07

he rose to this number one ranking

15:10

And he was still six one six

15:12

two Midway through his high

15:14

school career and then on top

15:16

of that for every highlight that he created

15:19

there was often an errant path Or an ill-advised

15:21

shot Williams the offensive board

15:24

Mikey again from three

15:26

minutes And you could come

15:29

away with a different Conception

15:31

of him if you watched a few highlights from

15:33

his game as you would if you watched the

15:35

full game. It's Mikey Williams

15:39

contorts loose Dean

15:42

Jones ball He wasn't getting

15:44

better as fast as NBA scouts

15:47

wanted to see your college coaches wanted to

15:49

see and as his fame

15:51

was growing On social media his

15:54

stature was also slowly starting

15:56

to decline in basketball circles

16:01

And Jeff, you wrote that quote, as

16:04

Williams NBA future became

16:06

less certain, the adults who stewarded

16:08

his basketball career plotted a new course

16:10

for him. Tell us what that new course looked

16:13

like. It felt like in a lot of ways,

16:15

like they were trying to capitalize

16:17

on his stardom while they still could, and

16:20

also try to hide some of his

16:22

deficiencies. Before his junior

16:24

year of high school, his dad founded Vertical

16:26

Academy, which was basically a glorified

16:29

club program. Vertical Academy

16:32

is a year-round club team that plays

16:35

nothing but the highest competition we

16:37

bring them in. It had no home gym. They

16:40

weren't affiliated with any league. The

16:42

players took online classes at the school

16:44

that Mikey attended as a sophomore in

16:46

North Carolina. They played a

16:48

40-plus game national schedule.

16:51

They got on an airplane almost every

16:53

weekend and faced other schools that

16:55

had top NBA prospects

16:58

on it. And the idea was to showcase Mikey

17:00

and to give him that level of competition

17:03

against other elite players. And

17:11

this may not have been the best for

17:14

his development for a number of reasons.

17:16

He still wasn't playing on the ball, so

17:19

he wasn't developing as a point guard. And

17:21

there just wasn't a lot of structure and discipline

17:24

there. So he could go out and

17:26

take 25 shots in a game,

17:28

and it didn't help him

17:30

become the efficient scorer that

17:32

he needed to be in order to progress

17:35

as a prospect.

17:36

Mikey Williams also had a number of big

17:38

endorsement deals. I'm sure that's no surprise

17:40

to anyone given how large his social media

17:43

following was. But Jeff, you wrote about how

17:45

one of those endorsement deals might have actually

17:47

worked against his development as a basketball

17:50

player. So can you explain that? Yeah.

17:53

Signing with Puma was great in

17:55

the short term. It was a lucrative deal.

17:57

It was really the first of its kind shoe

17:59

apparel. deal for a high school prospect.

18:02

We're sitting with a young kid, 18 right? Yeah.

18:05

This guy not only has an eight figure deal

18:07

with Puma, the first to do a shoe deal. The

18:09

first to ever do it, matter of fact. But the

18:11

problem with it was that the

18:14

two big grassroots circuits, the two

18:16

big AAU circuits are run by

18:18

Nike and Adidas. And so by

18:21

aligning himself with Puma, Mikey

18:23

wasn't actually able to play AAU

18:26

basketball on either the Adidas or Nike

18:28

circuits going into his senior

18:30

year. And so that meant

18:33

less high level basketball, less opportunities

18:35

to be seen by college basketball coaches,

18:38

less things that again could have helped his

18:41

actual basketball development. So

18:43

it was a great decision in the short

18:45

term, but it meant a sacrifice for him

18:48

in the long term if the end goal

18:50

was for him to become an NBA player someday.

18:52

Being the first to get a big eight figure

18:55

deal for Puma, you didn't even play

18:57

college, you didn't even play NBA yet. I'll be talking

18:59

to my homeboys a lot and I'm like, I'm

19:01

the first to do this, first to do that, right? But

19:04

I mean, I know that it could all

19:06

end tomorrow.

19:08

Coming up, things start to fall

19:10

apart for Mikey Williams.

19:19

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21:34

Okay,

21:36

so Jeff, it was during Mikey

21:38

Williams' senior season that things

21:40

really hit him. And how did things start out for

21:42

him from a basketball perspective?

21:45

Before Mikey's senior year, he made

21:47

kind of a surprise announcement that he was returning

21:50

to San Ysidro for his senior season.

21:59

I'm not gonna love you,

22:02

I'm not gonna love you. Yeah.

22:05

He

22:07

said that playing for his hometown school would

22:10

give him more purpose, that he was done playing

22:12

for pop-up prep schools. The city

22:14

needs it, bro. God just means

22:16

doing it for the city, you know what I'm saying?

22:18

Like, I feel like it'll have more purpose to behind

22:20

what I'm doing and more meaning, that's all. And,

22:23

you know, it really seems like it had a chance to be

22:25

a storybook ending to his high school career,

22:27

you know, go back home, play for the public school,

22:30

maybe compete for a section title

22:32

or even a state title. It's like the perfect

22:34

story, you know, perfect ending. You know, you're gonna

22:36

say first year, come back, win one last

22:39

year, play nationally. It just didn't

22:41

work out that way. Senior

22:45

season wasn't the Mikey Williams that

22:47

a lot of people in the San Diego area remembered

22:50

from his freshman season. It

22:52

seemed like at times that he was

22:54

kind of above it all. Yes, he scored

22:56

a lot of points, but his team

22:58

didn't win very many games. They

23:01

took 13 losses. Some of them were to

23:03

renowned Southern California or national

23:05

programs. Some of them were kind

23:07

of run-of-the-mill San Diego area programs

23:10

that didn't have a whole lot of talent. And

23:12

Mikey and his teammate at San Ysidro,

23:15

J.J. Taylor, were the only

23:18

five or four star prospects in the

23:20

entire San Diego area. So for

23:22

them to not win a league

23:24

title, not win a section title,

23:26

not win a single state playoff game,

23:29

and just kind of generally go

23:31

through the motions a lot. It left

23:34

a sour taste in people's mouths and it was a

23:36

pretty underwhelming season for somebody who

23:38

came in with so much hype.

23:42

And so as all of that was happening during

23:44

his senior season, what was happening for Mikey

23:46

Williams in terms of his basketball future?

23:49

So Mikey ended up committing early

23:52

in his senior year to the University

23:54

of Memphis. And that

23:56

was a pretty good fit. It seemed like

23:58

at the time Memphis is... coached by Penny Hardaway,

24:01

they've had other high level players there. So,

24:04

you know, it seemed like even though his high

24:06

school career had kind of plateaued

24:08

and stagnated, that there was still a chance

24:10

for him to maybe not live

24:13

up to the number one player

24:15

in his class type hype, but still

24:17

be a high level college basketball player with

24:19

perhaps the chance to play in the NBA

24:21

someday. All right. Well, it was

24:24

in March of 2023 that

24:26

Mikey Williams story really took an unfortunate

24:29

downward turn. Jeff, can you walk us through

24:31

what happened at Williams' home in

24:33

San Diego? So

24:37

shortly before midnight on the night

24:39

of March 27th, a

24:42

white Tesla with six people inside

24:44

pulled up to the $1.2 million house. And

24:48

one of the occupants of that car we've since

24:50

learned was there because she

24:52

was dating JJ Taylor, the teammate

24:55

of Mikey Williams, who was reportedly

24:57

living at the house with him. So

25:00

Mikey was not happy, allegedly,

25:02

that they showed up uninvited

25:04

and he seemed surprised that they were

25:07

there. Allegedly, he

25:09

began making threats and then went

25:11

back into his house to go get a gun. One

25:13

girl testified that Williams told the group,

25:16

quote, we better get to stepping or you'll

25:18

leave with bullet holes. A boy stated

25:20

that Williams told them here, quote, y'all better

25:22

leave before I kill of you all. So

25:25

none of the witnesses, none of the witnesses said that they

25:27

saw Williams fire his gun, but photos

25:30

showed the Tesla with bullet holes to the trunk

25:33

and to the back windshield. It was hit

25:35

with gunfire in the rear of the vehicle

25:37

as it drove away, according to a

25:39

relative of the driver who said the 25

25:42

year old man behind the wheel was

25:44

an Uber driver.

25:46

Bullets were notified the next day and

25:49

they

25:49

obtained a search warrant and

25:52

arrested Mikey in mid April. They

25:54

did not find the weapon that fired the bullets,

25:57

but they did find multiple other weapons.

26:00

in Mikey Williams' house. He

26:02

was charged initially with six felonies.

26:05

Later, three more were added. So he

26:07

has nine felony charges against

26:10

him currently that could put

26:12

him in prison for up to 30 years. His

26:15

Instagram account, which has nearly 4 million

26:17

followers, was deactivated last night.

26:19

He was released on $50,000 bail. To

26:25

your knowledge, Jeff, were there any indications

26:28

of him having a violent streak

26:30

before this incident? The

26:32

people that I spoke to were shocked

26:35

by this. There were always questions

26:37

about Mikey Williams, the basketball player.

26:40

But Mikey Williams, the person, especially

26:43

early in his rise to fame, received

26:46

a lot of praise for how he handled it.

26:48

He was always willing to sign autographs.

26:51

He really did a pretty good job,

26:53

it seems like, of embracing

26:55

a high level of fame and stardom

26:58

at a young age. As his

27:00

high school career went on, he

27:02

faced more criticism for how

27:04

he handled that spotlight. But no one

27:06

that I spoke to had ever seen a violent

27:08

streak from him or had ever seen

27:10

signs that something like this was possible.

27:13

So you mentioned that there are now nine felony

27:16

counts against him and that he faces

27:18

a possibility of up to 30 years. Where

27:21

do things stand right now? What's the timeline

27:24

of his legal case? And what is the

27:26

expected outcome? His trial is

27:28

scheduled to start December 14. And

27:31

attorneys who I spoke to who have

27:33

followed the case closely say that

27:36

there's a real chance that he could go

27:38

to prison for years in front

27:40

of the prime of his basketball career. Nothing

27:42

is set in stone and no one can say how

27:44

a jury will react. But the

27:47

attorney that I spoke to said that his defense

27:49

team has its work cut out for him, that

27:52

it's going to be difficult for him to argue self-defense

27:54

since the damage to the Tesla is

27:57

in the rear as it apparently

27:59

was driving.

27:59

away and if he can't prove

28:02

that it was self-defense then his

28:04

only other option would be to argue that

28:06

it wasn't him firing the gun and

28:09

to try to discredit the witnesses who say

28:11

that he had threatened them and that they

28:14

had seen him go back into the house to get his

28:16

gun. And so there's a

28:18

fair amount of circumstantial evidence that's

28:20

against him that he's going to have to figure out a way

28:22

to deal with and if he

28:24

can't deal with that the consequences are

28:26

significant.

28:28

What if anything has Mikey Williams said

28:31

about the incident? I mean I know it's a legal situation

28:33

so he's probably not saying much but has he commented

28:36

or expressed any sense of regret

28:38

or anything like that publicly? So one comment

28:40

that he did make was an Instagram post

28:43

after the judge ruled that the case could

28:45

proceed to trial. It was a quote from

28:47

a lyric of a song

28:50

by rapper Rylo Rodriguez

28:52

called, Ah, Never Be The Same. The

29:00

song discusses shooting, killing,

29:02

loyalty, and betrayal and the

29:05

judge ordered him to make no more social

29:07

media posts about his case and she described

29:10

it as a stupid, stupid thing that Mr.

29:12

Williams did. So

29:22

if anything he dug himself an even deeper

29:24

hole by quoting that particular

29:26

song lyric. You mentioned a minute

29:28

ago that Mikey Williams had committed to Memphis.

29:31

What is his current status with the school and

29:33

with the basketball program?

29:35

Mikey kind of surprisingly is still

29:37

on the roster at Memphis and is allowed

29:39

to take online classes but is

29:41

not allowed to be part of any

29:43

team activity or team

29:45

function. He's not on campus, he's back in

29:47

California. So he is

29:50

essentially not removed from the team

29:52

but also not part of the team either.

29:55

Penny Hardaway and his staff are hard at work

29:57

trying to solidify their roster for next season,

29:59

meaning There are plenty of questions about

30:01

who will and will not be a tiger today

30:04

hard away I think the expectation by most people

30:06

is that he probably won't play a game for

30:08

the University of Memphis But they are still

30:10

keeping that possibility alive at this time.

30:13

I'm not calling him guilty before he's innocent and You

30:17

know a lot of people do that. But for me We're

30:20

just staying the course until we figure so entire

30:22

thing out Lastly here Jeff. Do

30:24

you think that there is a Potential

30:27

path back to basketball

30:29

and maybe even to some form of professional basketball

30:31

for Mikey Williams in the future And if

30:33

so, what would that path look like? Never

30:38

say never I mean first and foremost it

30:40

would start with him being acquitted in

30:42

this case Like I don't see a pass

30:45

back if he has felony charges against him

30:47

But what I would say is there

30:50

is a level of tolerance at the NBA

30:52

level or the high-level college basketball level

30:55

For elite basketball players

30:57

like we've seen Jamarance with

30:59

the videos with guns and yet he'll still

31:02

be back on an NBA court We've seen other superstars

31:04

be able to get away with that sort of thing But

31:07

when you're a role player or when you're

31:09

the 12th man off an NBA bench like

31:12

NBA teams don't want a distraction from that

31:14

position and Mikey

31:16

Williams right now would be a distraction

31:19

So I'm not sure if NBA

31:21

teams think he has that

31:23

level of talent Regardless of

31:25

the legal situation But the legal situation

31:27

is just another obstacle that

31:30

he would have to overcome For a team

31:32

to be willing to take any sort of a chance

31:34

on him Mikey clearly

31:36

has not given up on his own basketball career

31:39

his trainer who I spoke to Said

31:41

that they're still working out together almost every

31:43

day and that he's basically staying

31:46

prepared for the next basketball opportunity Whatever

31:48

that might be the question right

31:50

now is will another opportunity arise And

31:53

I don't think anybody knows that or will until we

31:55

see the outcome of this trial Well,

31:58

Jeff, thanks so much for joining us

31:59

us today and telling us this story. Thanks

32:02

for having me, guys.

32:04

You can find a link to Jeff Eisenberg's story about

32:06

Mikey Williams in our episode description and

32:09

at yahoosports.com. Thanks

32:11

for listening today. This episode was produced by Matt

32:13

Beagle and me, Andres Kelto. Audio

32:15

assembly and editing by Daniel Gonzalez. Sound

32:18

design and mixing by Aaron May. Fact

32:20

checking by Ian Hurley. The rest of our team

32:22

includes Tiffany Oshinsky, Matt Straup, Adrian

32:24

Tapia, and Joe Richardson. The lead is

32:27

executive produced by Davison, Marshall Louie, and

32:29

Jen Sargent for Wondery. Thanks for listening and

32:31

have a great Thanksgiving break.

32:42

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