Grant Williams, then of the Tennessee Volunteers, throws a pass around Grady Eifert and Matt Haarms of the Purdue Boilermakers during the first half of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Celtics selected Tennessee forward Grant Williams 22nd in last Thursday's NBA Draft and, listening to him, it sounds like Boston's got a good one.
Williams chatted with ESPN about the process of trying to find a new number in the NBA.
"The number I wanted, Red Auerbach retired," Williams said. "Then I think 21-25 are retired, 31-35 are retired, and you're just like, dang, there's been a lot of history here. Dennis Johnson's retired. You have Kevin McHale, you have Larry Bird."
He thought about wearing Number 5, until he realized that was Kevin Garnett's number.
"Hopefully I can get a good number and something that'll last my entire career, but dang, I'm excited to hopefully be a part of the team I'll be on for the rest of my life," Williams said.
We'll hold him to that, right?
The closest Williams can land to his old Number 2 in college is Number 4. That's available—you know, unless the C's re-sign Isaiah Thomas.
WBZ NewsRadio's Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) reports