Boston Celtics rookie forward Grant Williams has made as much of a name for himself as a fan of cerebral board games like “Settlers of Catan” and “Dominion” as he has as a precociously good basketball player for a prospect in his inaugural season in the NBA.
But Williams didn’t expect his roommate for the pandemic hiatus — teammate Kemba Walker — to share his love for nerdy board games.
Speaking with beat reporters ahead of the Celtics’ planned trip to the so-called ‘Orlando Bubble,’ the Tennessee product opened a window into his time bunking with Walker in his home town of Charlotte, North Carolina.
“The best I could get was Uno and cards,” Williams explained. “No such things as board games — that’s where we differ.”
“[Walker] doesn’t like to sit in places for a long time and I’m just like, ‘yeah, I understand that.’ He’s not sitting for three hours trying play Monopoly, or an hour playing Catan, or Dominion, or whatever it is. He like the quick pace, fast paced, ‘all right, boom, we won’ or ‘we lost.’ He’s a Trouble board game player. That’s something we did play a lot of, Trouble.”
“It’s kind of funny because that’s the most easiest, simplest game any kid can try, but he loves Trouble,” added the former Volunteer.
The UConn product may be no fan of board games, but the two evidently were a natural fit as housemates, with each valuing their personal space in a way that worked out well.
“We actually very much bonded and got to know each other a little bit better because of the fact that we are both laid back and enjoy our space and time when we are just able to relax,” he explained.
Hopefully, that time spent together in quarantine tightens up the already Ubuntu-like chemistry driving the Celtics’ success earlier in the season when it is resumed in late July.
