Every player who comes to the NBA has high hopes and wants to have a great career in the league. Of course, being talented at playing basketball has a major impact on how a player’s career turns out in the league, there’s another factor that comes into play.
It is the fact that which team drafted them. Being drafted to a big market team certainly has a lot of upsides as compared to a small market team. So even if you are an excellent player, playing in a small market team can get you frustrated.
That’s something that the former NBA All-Star Deron Williamson experienced when he was playing for the Utah Jazz during the early years of his career.
It was clear that Williams was a good player, but it was impossible for him to lead the Jazz to an NBA Championship without the help of another NBA star.
Deron Williams Requested For A Trade After Numerous Attempts To Recruit Stars Failed
During his prime, Williams was one of the best point guards in the NBA and was also representing Team USA regularly. When he was playing in the Olympics, the then-Jazz guard must have tried to recruit many players.
Unfortunately, due to the Jazz being a small market team, not many players took his plea seriously and ignored it.
(Starts at 7:55)
“I had been around all the best players in the world. I had played in the Olympics. I was trying to recruit everybody. I’m talking everybody. Nobody’s coming to Utah. I’m a really good player at the time. I know: No. 1, I’m a point guard. You don’t win championships with just a point guard. You need pieces. We need other pieces,” Williams said. “All I saw, the writing on the wall, nobody’s going to come to Utah. No person I ever talked to was interested in coming to Utah. It just was a reality. So, I felt like I had to go somewhere else.”
The Western Conference was the better conference during the 2010s, and Williams realized he couldn’t help the Jazz in having a meaningful playoff run without some help.
This is just the reality that small market teams face. Had Williams been drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers or any other big market team, he wouldn’t have faced a situation where he had to request a trade.
