Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 2:59 pm  |  21 responses

Deron Williams calm before the skills Q&A

Sitting with one of tonight’s contestants as he trains

By Sam Rubenstein

Our friends from SONY hooked up the chance to talk to Utah Jazz superstar PG Deron Williams in the hours leading up to the the Playstation Skills Challenge. Deron is getting ready for the big showdown tonight by practicing with the video game NBA ’08. Wrap your head around this circular logic: Deron is a real life basketball player, training for real life using a video game simulation, but the company that makes the simulation also sponsors the real life event… wait I’m confused.

Anyways, tonight is the skills challenge. I sat with Deron as he trained. The interview was interrupted with lots of bursts of Aaaaaah! when he’d mess up, and I respect his level of focus. There’s nothing worse than having someone force you to talk to them when you’re trying to play a video game. But Deron was a good sport.
SLAM: Have you been practicing for tonight at all?

DERON: Nothing extra in real life. This is it right here. I’m practicing with this game.

S: Are you nervous?

D: Oh yeah, I’m nervous. I think I’m gonna miss the shot, maybe a bad pass or something.

S: How much does this mean to you? How badly do you want to win?

D: Well, I’m a competitor. I always want to win at whatever I do. Basketball, golf, I suck at golf. But I don’t want to lose, man.

S: You always seem to be associated with someone else, the great team at Illinois, always tied to Chris Paul or Carlos Boozer. Is this your big night where you get to say I’m Deron Williams dammit!

D: (chuckles) It’s more about going out there and having fun. I want to go out there and give the fans a good show. I would like to be playing in the All-Star Game but since that didn’t happen this year, my chance to perform is right here.

S: What if you win and people find out you were using this game to train?

D: I won’t tell them I was playing the game.

If Deron wins, do we have another spygate on our hands? We’ll see. He’s predicting Dwyane Wade as the winner tonight, which would make it three years in a row. Taking the pressure off himself, playing the underdog card. Nice move. I asked a question that came out as “So, no Larry Bird everybody else is playing for second place trash talk from you?” He just stared and said no. This was focused, intensive training. Best of luck tonight, Deron.

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  • j rich Posted: Feb.16 at 3:05 pm
    chris paul’s gonna win the skills challenge.

  • Captain America Posted: Feb.16 at 3:17 pm
    Good luck Deron. I’ll be watchin.

  • peteb80 Posted: Feb.16 at 3:20 pm
    Dwade is too fat to win it again.

  • trick Posted: Feb.16 at 3:32 pm
    i heard that game is rubbish, dwade’s gonna win

  • Boing Dynasty Posted: Feb.16 at 3:39 pm
    NBA 2K8.

  • what Posted: Feb.16 at 5:01 pm
    Bibby to ATL son! What!

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: Feb.16 at 5:51 pm
    Apparently CBooz chartered a plane and flew all the Jazz competitors (himself, Deron, Millsap and Brewer) to Nawlins on his own dime. Good deal.

  • namik Posted: Feb.16 at 5:51 pm
    yeah did that really happen? Why Atlanta of all places? And Sac is getting robbed. Atlanta should be top 5 in the East now.

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: Feb.16 at 5:52 pm
    Not sure why I just thought of this, but why aren’t all the Jazz players decked out in New Orleans Jazz gear for the weekend? And if there isn’t at least one good Pistol Pete tribue I’m gonna be pissed.

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: Feb.16 at 5:53 pm
    TRIBUTE, even. I’ll make a separate post on Bibby if my main man mutoni hasn’t already.

  • Rubens Posted: Feb.16 at 5:58 pm
    now I wish Deron wins it, just so he can scream “I’m deron Williams dammit!” on th interview

  • Captain America Posted: Feb.16 at 6:02 pm
    I wanta know why CBooz didn’t pick up our Slam peeps.

  • Glen Posted: Feb.16 at 6:10 pm
    What the hell are the Kings doing? And where is Lang, what does he think of this?

  • RV Posted: Feb.16 at 6:20 pm
    yeah its true, well it says they agreed to the trade, but not finalized yet

  • Rubens Posted: Feb.16 at 6:30 pm
    on the $ russ

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: Feb.16 at 7:43 pm
    Great, I switched over to TNT right at the end of the Pistol Pete feature, which happened around 6, 6:15. Someone better post it on YouTube.

  • Gerard Himself Posted: Feb.16 at 10:16 pm
    Deron won!

  • L.O.N. » Blog Archive » Line Of The Night — 02/16/2008 — All-Star Saturday Edition NBA Basketball Posted: Feb.17 at 8:22 pm
    [...] It came down to the two point guards that are continuously linked, Williams and Paul.  They had the course almost perfected, and in the second round, Williams DID perfect it, setting the all-time record.  It must have been all that PS3 practice he got in earlier that morning.  Paul noticeably picked up his pace in an effort to re-set it, but a missed J got him.  Advantage Williams, in the “best young point” argument.  Is there any more definitive evidence than this? [...]

  • jay from the philippines Posted: Feb.18 at 8:34 pm
    i agree with L.O.N. no question, Dwill’s got the skillz

  • jay from the philippines Posted: Feb.18 at 8:34 pm
    i agree with L.O.N. no question, Dwill’s got the skillz

  • walid Posted: May.17 at 10:55 pm
    hey deron wath is your ps3 tag

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