Jay Williams was waived by the Toros earlier this week so he can rehabilitate a nagging groin injury. There’s no injured list in the D-League, but the Toros will have the right of first refusal if and when Williams gets better.
Filling his spot on coach Dennis Johnson’s struggling roster will be Troy Bell, a former first-round NBA draft pick out of Boston College who logged time with the Memphis Grizzlies two season ago before going off to Europe to play with Read Madrid of Spain and the Frankfurt Skyliners of Germany. Bell, a six-foot one-inch guard, was picked in the first round of the 2006 D-League draft by the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, where he averaged 10.7 points and 3.7 rebounds a game before being waived on Dec. 27. Such is the topsy-turvy, hurly-burly world of minor-league basketball.
Williams averaged six points and 5.3 assists in three games with the Toros. In those games, he was a true point guard, leading the team with his passing and court-vision and energy. Unfortunately he always looked a step slow, never conjuring the bursts of speed and fire he was once famous for. Hopefully, this is the result of the groin injury, rather than lingering difficulties resulting from his motorcycle accident in 2003. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for a speedy recovery and a quick return to form.
Meanwhile, the Toros fell to 1-13 this past Saturday with a 101-84 loss to the 7-7 Idaho Stampede. Newly reassigned San Antonio Spurs forward James White (who is quickly learning all the nooks and crannies of I-35) led the Toros with 23 points: cold comfort for White and his teammates as they head into the new year with the weight of the world on their shoulders, now nine points out of the lead in the Eastern Division.
This article appears in December 29 • 2006.