Latavious Williams

He was drafted by the Miami Heat in the second round with the 48th pick.

He became the first player ever to skip college basketball and play a year in the D-League before getting drafted in the NBA.

Latavious Williams (born March 29, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for Al-Ittihad Jeddah of the Saudi Basketball League (SBL).

Williams was, however, the second player to be drafted while playing for a D-League team, as Mike Taylor ended up being drafted two years earlier in 2008.

As of April 2022, Williams has never played a competitive game (regular season or playoff) in the NBA, being one of two D-League draftees to hold such claim (the other being Chukwudiebere Maduabum).

Williams was born to Fredrick and Cassandra Neely in Starkville, Mississippi.

Williams played four years at Starkville High School.

In his last year at Starkville, he averaged 19.9 points, 14.5 rebounds and 5.0 blocks and led Starkville to the Class 5A state semi-finals.

After four years in Starkville, he had completed only 2 of the 16 core courses that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires for eligibility for an athletic scholarship.

He then attended Christian Life Center Academy, a private school in Humble, Texas, for a year to complete the 14 other core courses he needed.

He continued to play on prep level and averaged 23 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks, 4 assists and 4 steals for the Christian Life Center Academy.

After finishing his high school education, Williams intended to play college basketball.

He also became the second player to be drafted from a D-League team to the NBA, after Mike Taylor in 2008.

He was ranked as one of the top 20 recruits in the 2009 class.

In May 2009, he announced his verbal commitment to attend the University of Memphis.

He chose Memphis ahead of Georgetown, Kansas State and Florida International.

He became Josh Pastner's first recruit as the Memphis Tigers head coach.

However, he struggled to qualify academically and later backed out from his commitment to play for Memphis and instead skipped college basketball altogether to play professionally.

However, a player who attended high school in the United States is not eligible to enter the NBA draft until a year after his high school graduation.

He was expected to sign with an overseas team before entering the NBA when he became eligible, a similar path taken by Brandon Jennings who played in the Italian league for a year before he was drafted in 2009.

Williams receive several offers from overseas teams, including an offer from the Chinese Basketball Association which were reportedly worth US$100,000.

However, his family decided against the idea of playing overseas.

He opted to play in the D-League, the NBA's official minor league organization.

He chose to earn US$19,000 in the D-League because he believed that he would receive more exposure and experience.

Because the NBA requires a player to be one year out of high school to play in the league, he became the only D-League player who could not be called up by any of the NBA teams in the 2009–10 season.

He played as the 66ers backup forward for most of the season, starting only 7 out of 46 games in the regular season.

He averaged 7.7 points on 52.8 percent shooting and 7.7 rebounds in 20.5 minutes per game.

He scored in double figures 16 times and recorded double-figure rebounds in 13 games during the regular season.

He also recorded 9 double-doubles in the regular season.

He improved his production in the postseason, averaging 11.3 points on 61.2 percent shooting and 8.0 rebounds in seven postseason games.

He helped the 66ers advanced to the Finals but they failed to win the championship despite Williams averaging 13.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in the two finals games against Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

After graduating from high school, he played with the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League before being drafted by the Miami Heat with the 48th pick in the 2010 NBA draft.

After the draft, his draft rights were immediately traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the NBA affiliate of the 66ers.

However, the Thunder did not sign him to a contract and Williams returned to the D-League with the 66ers.

Williams was automatically eligible for the 2010 NBA draft as he was already one year removed from his high school graduation.

On February 19, 2015, his draft rights were traded to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Williams was the first player ever to skip college basketball and play a year in the D-League before getting drafted in the NBA.

He was also the first player ever to enter into the D-League directly from high school.

He entered the D-League Draft and was drafted 16th overall by the Tulsa 66ers.

He became the first player ever selected in the D-League Draft directly from high school.