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Keith Williams: Nighthawks head coach and writer

November 11, 2006 - American Basketball Association (ABA)
Maryland NightHawks News Release


Rockville, MD. Last September, after accepting a position with the ABA Maryland Nighthawks' Marketing department, one of my first tasks was to help with the team's Media Day festivities. While at the event, I was going down the team roster and calling the players in one-by-one for their team and promotional photographs. After all of the players had been photographed as if they were movie stars walking down a red carpet, it was time for me to call in first year head coach Keith Williams. As Williams approached me, I felt intimidated by his enormous stature. A former basketball player at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore himself and one of the final cuts in training camp with the New Jersey Nets, I quietly said, "Coach, it's your turn."

I knew little about Williams, only that he is a personal trainer to NBA stars Gilbert Arenas, Steve Francis, Caron Butler, Jarrett Jack, among others, and that this was his first professional coaching job. Over the course of the season, I got to know Keith pretty well. While I was doing the radio play-by-play, Keith always accepted my requests for interviews and readily gave me insight into what was going on with the team. Williams got off to a fast start in his rookie coaching season leading the Nighthawks to an impressive 11-3 start and was named assistant coach to the ABA All-Star team. Williams led the Nighthawks to a 25-10 regular season record and a trip to the ABA's Great Eight where they eventually lost to Southern California.

Entering his second season as Nighthawks' head coach with only four returning players doesn't concern Williams at all. According to Williams, the Nighthawks will be "playing a different style of basketball," while he still expects the team to have "a great season and continue to be one of the better organizations in the league."

Williams has mastered the game as a player, and continues to do so as a coach, but now he is approaching the game with yet another skill - that of a talented writer. During this past off season, Williams has started writing articles for Better Basketball's newly created Online Magazine which is available only to Better Basketball exclusive members. Better Basketball has produced a series of instructional videos using NBA Stars Chauncy Billups, Jason Kidd and Mike Bibby to name a few, and proclaims itself to be the "leading source for player improvement, basketball training and winning hoops."

Thus far, Williams has written two articles for the magazine, one being featured on the front page. His articles portray what he knows best - player development, footwork, and off-season workouts. Williams says the articles takes him five solid hours to write but do not interfere with his Nighthawks coaching responsibilities. Williams say, (his) next article will be on the pick 'n roll and the two man game," and he also plans on writing about the Nighthawks and life in minor league basketball.

As for Williams' future, he says he would like to have a role and appear in an instrutional vidio with Better Basketball and also plans on writing an autobiography. That is, of course, after this multi-faceted basketball guru transcribes the X's and O's into a Maryland Nighthawks ABA Championship. (Adam: You're not a bad writer yourself. Joe Newman, ABA CEO).

For more information, visit www.marylandnighthawks.com or www.abalive.com.

(Written by Adam Dantus: Nighthawks.com Staff Writer)

Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.

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