Derrick Williams returns to European basketball. AEK Athens announced on Monday the signing of the American power forward on a one-year deal with an optional second year, and the player is already in Greece.
The move closes a period that had kept him away from the top of European basketball for some time. After his last EuroLeague campaign in 2022-23 with Panathinaikos, Williams continued his career outside the European circuit, with stints in Puerto Rico and the South Korean league.
A well-known name in Spanish basketball
Spanish fans need no introduction. Williams wore the Valencia Basket jersey between 2020 and 2021, in a period hampered by injuries—a muscle tear in his left calf stopped him shortly after arriving—and ended with the termination of his contract.
Before that, he had built a notable reputation in Europe. He made his debut on the continent with Bayern Munich, where he won the German championship in 2019, and in his year at Fenerbahce he averaged 11.3 points and 3.9 rebounds in the EuroLeague, ranking among the competition's four most productive players. Then came Valencia, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Panathinaikos, with whom he was named an All-Star in the Greek league.
In total, he has accumulated 160 EuroLeague games with 11 points and 3.6 rebounds in just over twenty-five minutes.
The prospect who never quite fulfilled his potential in the NBA
His career started with a heavy label. The Minnesota Timberwolves selected him with the 2nd overall pick in the 2011 draft, right after Kyrie Irving, following two seasons at Arizona in which he averaged 19.5 points and 8.3 rebounds in his sophomore year.
He never reached that level. His best season came in 2012-13 with Minnesota, with 12 points and 5.5 rebounds in 78 games, and then he had stints with Sacramento, New York, Miami, Cleveland, and a brief stint with the Lakers. With the Cavaliers, he reached the 2017 Finals, though with a very limited role: eight playoff games on the road that ended in defeat to Golden State.
His NBA record stands at 428 games, 112 as a starter, with 8.9 points, 4 rebounds, and 0.7 assists in 20.7 minutes and a 43.4% field goal percentage.