Art Williams

Arthur T. Williams, known in basketball as Art Williams and by the nickname “Hambone,” was an American professional basketball player born on September 29, 1939. His playing years belonged to a lively period in pro basketball, when the National Basketball Association was growing and the American Basketball Association also offered another stage for players. Williams’ career moved through college basketball, the NBA, and briefly the ABA before his retirement from the court.

Williams first played basketball for two seasons at San Diego City College, from 1959 to 1961. He later played for the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos during the 1962-63 season. Those stops preceded his professional career, but they also show the steady path he took into higher levels of the game. His familiar nickname, “Hambone,” went back even further. He received it in junior high when someone called out “hambone” and he turned around.

Williams played seven seasons in the NBA from 1967 to 1974, spending time with the San Diego Rockets and the Boston Celtics. He is especially noted for becoming the second player in NBA history to record a triple-double within his first four NBA games, joining Oscar Robertson in that rare early-career achievement. Across his NBA career, Williams averaged 5.3 points per game. In 1974, he won an NBA Championship with Boston.

After his NBA years, Williams also played briefly with the San Diego Conquistadors of the American Basketball Association in the 1974-75 season. His professional record was not built on long scoring lists or celebrity alone, but on a career that included a fast statistical milestone, years in two major basketball leagues, and a championship with one of the sport’s best-known teams.

The public record gives only a few details about what shaped Williams’ way of thinking, but those details are concrete: junior high, junior college, Cal Poly Pomona, San Diego, Boston, and a final pro stop in the ABA. His life in basketball was marked by work over time and by moments that placed him in select company. He died on September 27, 2018, after suffering a stroke, at the age of 78. For readers of quotations, the line associated with his name, “I’m not telling you it is going to be easy, I am telling you it is going to be worth it,” fits the outline of a career earned step by step.