Hambone Williams is my favorite basketball player. I learned about him roughly 12 hours ago. Before Ben Simmons matched the feat on Tuesday night, he was the last rookie to score a triple-double in his first four games. That is why an obscure point guard from the ‘70s is being discussed again:
Ben Simmons’ rise to stardom is besmirching the good name of Hambone Williams
Poor Hambone.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
You’ve got to be a pretty big NBA nerd to know anything about Hambone Williams. He played from 1967-1975, winning a championship with the Celtics in 1973-74. Sure, he played only 17.2 minutes a game over his career — but scant few people ever get to say they played with John Havlicek. Fun Fact: Former NBA coaches Dave Cowens, Don Chaney, Don Nelson, Paul Silas and Paul Westphal were all on that team too.
But I digress, because this is about Hambone. Wanting to know more about the career of Art “Hambone” Williams, I went to Wikipedia, as one does, and was shocked by what I saw:
via Wikipedia
In the wee hours of the morning, someone unfairly defaced Hambone’s page to give him a ham fetish that never existed. The real story behind his “Hambone” nickname was told by the Miami Herald in 2012:
“Williams, who got his nickname when someone yelled “hambone” in junior high and he happened to turn around, has had some great days of his own.”
It’s incredible that Hambone’s nickname not only started because some random person shouted it, but that he kept it from junior high until now. That’s a level of commitment we don’t see enough of anymore, and it’s cause for celebration — not falsehoods being made about him.
Thankfully the Wikipedia page has been corrected and the real source of the nickname given for the world to appreciate with the spurious slander being removed posthaste.
