{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Halls of Mediocrity","title":"Jayson Williams Shot His Limo Driver on Valentine's Day. The Cover-Up Was Worse Than the Accident. | HoM Ep. 6","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3340,"description":"Jayson Williams grew up watching his father shoot people. His dad knew it, too — when Williams got drafted, his father reportedly told the team: keep that kid busy, because if he's not busy, he's going to get in trouble.\n \nHe was born in 1968 in South Carolina to a mixed-race family in the deep south, starred at Christ the King High School in Queens, and went to St. John's. He was the 21st overall pick in the 1990 NBA Draft, selected by the Phoenix Suns and immediately traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. His first three seasons were largely invisible. The Nets got him in 1992 expecting maybe eight to ten minutes a game.\n \nThat's not what happened.\n \nJayson Williams worked his way into the starting lineup and then into something nobody expected: legitimacy. In the 1997–98 season, he led the NBA in offensive rebounds and offensive rebound percentage, finished top five in total rebounds per game, made his one and only All-Star team, and set a Nets franchise record with 17 offensive rebounds and 20 total in a single game. He was the face of that franchise. He earned a six-year, $86 million contract in 1999.\n \nThen, on April 1, 1999 — April Fool's Day — he collided with Stephon Marbury, shattered his right leg, and never played meaningfully again. He tried to come back. He broke his left foot in practice. He retired in June 2000, age 32, and collected nearly the entirety of the $86 million having played only 30 games on that deal.\n \nA man with no job, no structure, $86 million, and a history of poor decisions around alcohol and firearms. His father knew what that formula produced.\n \nOn February 14, 2002 — Valentine's Day — Williams had hired Costas \"Gus\" Christofi, a 55-year-old limo driver beloved by athletes across the league, to drive him and a group of friends home from a Harlem Globetrotters charity game. Back at his 65-acre New Jersey estate, drunk, Williams was showing off a Browning 12-gauge shotgun. He snapped the barrel shut with one hand. The gun discharged....","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/6aEYBozm0J1cCQ9BGVxQycxZCZt-5e-M212EfQgfQFk/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS84YWFi/MTkwNTUxNzQwYTg0/YTkxZGZiMmNjNGZl/NTM0Ni5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}