Why Is Deron Williams in the Boxing Ring?

The former NBA All-Star is trading the court for the ring as he prepares to fight former NFL running back Frank Gore in the undercard of the Jake Paul–Tyron Woodley rematch.

Deron Williams will talk about basketball, about his abrupt retirement from the NBA in 2017 (“Mentally, I wasn’t in a good place,” says Williams), about the failed super team experiment in Brooklyn (“We just didn’t get a chance to click”), about the criticism his former teammate, Paul Pierce, leveled at him for being among the biggest reasons it did not work (“He was kind of right”). He admits he flirted with a return, but after a couple of years, says Williams, “it definitely became too late.”

Williams will talk basketball, because he’s promoting boxing. On Saturday, Williams, a three-time NBA All-Star, will make his pro boxing debut when he takes on ex-NFL running back Frank Gore in a fully sanctioned, four-round fight. Williams-Gore will be on the undercard of Jake Paul’s rematch with ex-UFC champion Tyron Woodley, part of a Showtime pay-per-view that will take place Saturday at Amalie Arena in Tampa.

Williams shrugs when asked why he’s getting into boxing. “Checking a box,” Williams said in an interview with Sports Illustrated. He initially planned to fight in February 2020, but his opponent backed out. The pandemic shelved those plans until Williams got a call in early November asking if he was interested in facing Gore. Williams had watched Paul, who along with his brother, Logan, a fellow YouTuber, have made a splash in boxing and have found success. He believed he could, too.

“I wanted to fight in some way, shape or form,” says Williams. “Originally I didn't think boxing was a way to do it because this celebrity boxing thing wasn't really a thing until the last year and a half, two years when the Paul brothers kind of made it popular. I'm just looking at it as I'm fighting Frank Gore on Dec. 18, and then you probably won't hear from me for a while again.”

Indeed, Williams disappeared after his NBA career ended. He became a full-time father, raising his four children. He played golf. He dabbled in construction. Eventually, he began to spend more time in Fortis MMA, a Dallas gym he co-owns. A wrestler growing up, Williams took to mixed martial arts quickly. He got into jiujitsu and, eventually, boxing. And when the opportunity came to test his skills, even against a fellow novice like Gore, Williams jumped on it.

“People are asking me, ‘Why are you doing it?'” says Williams. “I've had people be like, ‘What are you thinking?’ Well, I'm doing it because I want to do it. Yeah, it's scary. I'm sure I'll be nervous, but I think it'll be fun, too. I think it'll be a unique experience that not a lot of people get a chance to do, especially in front of a crowd and the world.”

Courtesy of Cooper Neil/SHOWTIME

At 37, Williams isn’t looking for a second act. “I’m not trying to become a world champion or anything,” says Williams. The first act was stressful enough. Once, Williams ranked among the NBA’s elite. He was the heir to John Stockton in Utah. The superstar who would lead Brooklyn to a championship. Not long ago there was a debate over who was better: Williams or Chris Paul.

Williams's rise was rapid. So, too, was his fall. There was an ugly exit in Utah. Brooklyn was a disaster. The last memory many NBA fans have of Williams was a dismal performance with Cleveland in the 2017 NBA Finals. Injuries robbed Williams of his athleticism. He’s lost count of how many. “My ankles were the worst,” says Williams. “I waited so long to get them repaired, and they took a lot out of me. My first couple years in Brooklyn, I just had no lift. My ankles would swell up like softballs after games.” And injuries eventually convinced him it was time to walk away.

Says Williams, “I didn't know if I could take another season of that disappointment.”

He has regrets. What-ifs. Plenty of them. What would have happened had the Nets—headlined by Williams, Pierce and Kevin Garnett—been healthy? “For sure,” says Williams. “There was just a lot of stuff going on I think at one time. It was kind of just like a s---storm and didn't go well, but we battled back that second half of the season and still lost to a tough LeBron [-led] Miami team.”

Williams absorbed plenty of criticism for his play in Brooklyn. From fans, the media, even his former teammates. Pierce said the pressure of playing for the Nets got to Williams. “Before I got there, I looked at Deron as an MVP candidate,'' Pierce told ESPN in 2015. "But I felt once we got there, that's not what he wanted to be.”

Williams admits: Pierce’s words stung. But as time passed, he gained an appreciation for what Pierce was saying. “I was the franchise guy,” says Williams. “I was a max player. It was my job, and I wasn't able to do it. So as much as it hurts or it hurt, there's truth to it, so it can't hurt that much.”

Williams still watches the NBA. He watched last summer, when Paul, the fourth pick in the 2005 NBA draft, led Phoenix to the Finals. Williams, the third pick that year, says he’s not jealous of Paul. Not envious. He’s impressed. Maybe even a little proud.

“I mean, who else from that draft class is doing it?” asks Williams. “What he's doing, that's not normal. That's not easy. That's not to be taken lightly. I'm really good friends with Chris. I've always been impressed with his career and him as a player, as a person. I'm really impressed with what he's done these last two or three years because he was having injury problems when he was in Houston. People were writing him off. And then he got the big contract and people were like, ‘That's a stupid contract.’ He's proven that it's not a stupid contract and that he's still an elite point guard and one of the best to do it.”

So Williams wouldn’t want to box Paul?

“No,” says Williams, laughing.

Is there a player, past or present, he would like to get in the ring with?

“The guy I used to get into it with was Dahntay Jones,” says Williams. “Couldn't stand him because he always tripped me. Always played hard on D. Was one of those guys that tried to get under your skin and I would've said him until I played with him in Cleveland and he became my boy. I love Dahntay, but before that it was probably him.”

So not, say, Carlos Boozer, his ex-teammate with the Jazz?

“Why would I want to fight Booze?” says Williams with a laugh.

Pierce? Williams did run into Pierce recently at a Showtime shoot.

“I almost thought about saying that to him just to mess with him,” says Williams. “But I don't have a problem with Paul.”

David West, who did some boxing training in his playing days?

“Why you got me fighting guys that have like 40 pounds on me?” asks Williams.

Williams won’t have 40 pounds, but he will have a six-inch height advantage and an eight-inch reach advantage when he steps in the ring with Gore. Oddsmakers have installed Williams as a nearly 2-to-1 favorite. Williams, though, has no expectations. He doesn’t want to go out like Nate Robinson, who was knocked out by Jake Paul last year. And he doesn’t want to look as goofy as Lamar Odom, last seen pummeling Aaron Carter in a cartoonish exhibition. Beyond that, he’s just looking for the experience.

“I'm very aware of that and that it takes a unique skillset to box,” says Williams. “I am taking this as a one-off, and we'll see what happens. I never know until I get in there and see what happens, but this is just a one-time thing that I wanted to do. It gave me a reason to get back in shape and have a chance to fight, because I've always wanted to fight.”