FORT WORTH — Brandon Williams entered the gymnasium at Keller Central on Friday afternoon to the sound of cheers and excitement from approximately 130 children.
Coming off the best season of his professional basketball career, the Mavericks guard is spending the majority of his offseason in Dallas.
Williams has a daily routine that looks something like this: He spends his mornings lifting weights before going through shooting drills and treatment for a left oblique strain he suffered against the Memphis Grizzlies on Feb. 13 in the final game of the regular season. After a trip home to relax, he’ll return to the gym for a second workout session that’ll vary in intensity depending on how he’s feeling.
On Friday, he made a slight adjustment to his schedule to visit those young campers for Mavs Academy Hoop Camp. Williams signed autographs, answered questions from the curious campers and played the popular game of knockout.
“Just seeing the looks on their faces, not only when I walk in, but when I interact with everybody,” Williams said of his favorite moment about the camp. “Growing up, I never had anybody of NBA caliber come by when I was at daycare or anywhere like that. ... It’s fun for me too.”
Williams was once a part-time member of the Mavericks as a two-way player, but the Mavericks converted his deal to a standard contract on April 10. He’s anticipating an increased amount of opportunity in the upcoming season, especially since Dallas is expected to be without star guard Kyrie Irving for multiple months as he recovers from ACL surgery.
Williams is using the offseason to improve his game and his body. He said he expects to be fully healthy by the time training camp begins this fall.
“I’ve been working out a lot,” Williams said. “I was dealing with a little oblique strain. I’m getting better with that. Working out every day. Just taking it one day at a time. Trying to stay sharp on a few things. My ball-handling, shooting, all those types of things. Being the point guard and having everybody just jell together earlier than later in the season.”
Williams spoke to a small group of reporters for seven minutes about the basketball camp, his offseason routine and his reaction to the Mavericks landing the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft. The third-year guard was in the middle of a lifting session on the night of May 12 when the pick was announced at the NBA draft lottery.
“I was actually lifting when it happened,” Williams said. “I went to my phone to go check and that’s when [ESPN’s] Shams [Charania] announced that we had the No. 1 pick. It was kind of crazy. It’s exciting, for sure, just to see what was going to be happening. That’s the biggest word, exciting.”
Williams, who was undrafted out of Arizona, didn’t talk about Cooper Flagg — whom the Mavericks are projected to select with the No. 1 overall pick — but he appeared excited about his expectations for next season.
Williams started the 2024-25 season on a two-way deal, but received an opportunity to showcase his offensive skillset once Irving suffered his season-ending injury on March 3. He averaged 15.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists with shooting splits of 55% from the field, 37% from 3 and 85% from the stripe in his final 13 games of availability, which was enough production for the Mavericks to reward him with a standard contract.
The journey of going undrafted in 2021 to spending time in the G League, mostly on two-way contracts for Portland and Dallas, led to Williams’ first official contract in the NBA. Perseverance was an overall theme of Williams’ message to the young campers.
“Never give up,” Williams said. “The road is not going to always be easy. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there, as long as you get there. It’s going to be a marathon no matter what it is. It was a rough two to three years to get here. ... You’re going to have your obstacles either way. That’s the main thing I was trying to get across to the kids today.”
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