Inside The Huskies

Husky Basketball Team Extends Scholarship Offer to NBA Offspring

Elijah Williams is the son of Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams.

Dan Raley

In this story:

The move may turn out to be little more than symbolic, but the University of Washington has offered a basketball scholarship to Elijah Williams — son of Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams.

This younger Williams is all of 14, just entering high school, Scottsdale Christian in Arizona.

He won't play college basketball until the 2026-27 season at the earliest. 

On Saturday, AAU coach Corey Boswell revealed the offer to Williams, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound wing, from Mike Hopkins' Husky program on social media.

Williams is described as a mature player for his age, equally effective in scoring on the drive, with a pull-up jumper or from beyond 3-point range.

While Elijah Williams is one of five children and has a famous father, he and his family members have had to deal with unspeakable tragedy.

In 2016, he was just 8 when his mother, Ingrid, died from injuries suffered in a head-on traffic accident in Oklahoma Cit. Authorities said the mishap was caused by a driver under the influence of drugs who crossed over the center line.

Monty Williams, 50, since has remarried Lisa Keeth, who works in the San Antonio Spurs organization, in putting his life back together.   

A first-round NBA draft pick in 1994 from Notre Dame, the older Williams was a 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward who played eight NBA seasons for the New York Knicks, Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers.

He retired as a player in 2003 and entered coaching. Seven years later, Williams became coach of the New Orleans Pelicans and stayed five seasons before the franchise let him go. 

Williams joined the Suns as head coach in 2019 and, this past season, guided them into the West Division finals against eventual NBA champ Golden State.

Now he has a son who plays the game at a fairly high level, too, and has a Husky scholarship offer. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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