The tragic story of Ray Williams

The story of Ray Williams needs to be told and re-told to serve as a warning. The former high-scoring Knicks and Nets guard has been homeless for years, scraping as a fisherman and part-time hospital employee, and he has nobody to blame for this reality beyond his own bad decisions.

Which is how it goes for all of these ex-players gone wrong, right? Well, not in this case.

Because with Ray Williams, there's no drugs, and there's no alcohol. There's no scrapes with the law, and there's precious little hubris in comparison to so many of the other ex-players that have blown through all their big league earnings.

Ray Williams is homeless because he didn't take care of his money properly. Simple as that. And it's just a gobsmackingly tragic story that is likely to repeat itself again and again, even as the average salary in today's NBA tops out at around $5 million a year.

Tim Povtak of FanHouse caught up with Williams recently:

He tapped into his NBA pension early -- taking a lump-sum payment estimated at $200,000 -- and left for Florida, where he quickly fell victim to a real estate scam.

Because he loved the game, he started working as a groundskeeper at a Central Florida golf course. He moved on to become an apartment complex maintenance man, a part-time girls basketball coach, a bakery worker. He delivered copiers, changed tires, moving from low-paying job to low-paying job, usually growing bored before he went looking for something else, making just enough to survive.

Twice while in Florida, he was given grants -- totaling $10,000 -- from the NBA Retired Players Association, which has tried to help him restart his life, but the money didn't last. That well has run dry.

It's a touching, moving story that no pull quote could ably represent. Do yourself a favor and head over to read it.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/The-tragic-story-of-Ray-Williams?urn=nba-276147

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