Randy Moss and Jason Williams Were on the Same Basketball Team in High School
Many pro athletes play multiple sports in high school. It’s a testament to how skilled they are athletically. For example, LeBron James was a great high school football player. Former New York Yankee and Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield was drafted in three professional sports.
Randy Moss played basketball in high school as well as football, and he was quite good. What was also remarkable was one of his teammates — future NBA star point guard, Jason Williams. Let’s take a closer look at both their careers and how they got their start together.
Randy Moss’s NFL career
Moss played collegiately for Marshall University. Off-field issues kept him from playing for other big schools — he was recruited by Notre Dame and was actually kicked off Florida State’s football team. It was those same issues that led multiple teams to pass on Moss. The Minnesota Vikings selected him, and what a pick it was.
Moss’s rookie season wasn’t just one of the best rookie years in league history. It may have been one of the best seasons for a receiver, period. In 1998, he caught 69 passes and a league-high 17 touchdowns while leading the Vikings to a 15-1 regular season and the NFC title game.
Moss was also a big part of New England’s 2007-2008 undefeated regular season, serving as the most prominent weapon in Tom Brady’s offense. Moss had shorter stints in Oakland and San Francisco, and while he had some ignominious exits from a few teams, he’ll be remembered as one of the greatest wide receivers all-time.
Jason Williams’ NBA career
Known as “White Chocolate,” Williams initially caught on with the Sacramento Kings. After years languishing at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, Williams his teammates like Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, and Peja Stojakovic brought the Kings back into the national spotlight.
Williams was best known for his incredible ball-handling. His dribbling and passing skills weren’t just good — they were flamboyant and electric. He possessed the kind of showmanship not seen in a point guard since “Pistol” Pete Maravich.
Despite Williams’ popularity, following his third season the Kings traded him to the Memphis Grizzlies for fellow point guard Mike Bibby. The Kings rose to even greater heights with Bibby, while Williams never quite fulfilled the promise of his earlier career.
He did, however, manage to win a championship while averaging 12.3 points per game with the Miami Heat in 2005-2006. He ended up playing 12 years in the NBA.
Randy Moss and Jason Williams were high school basketball teammates
Williams and Moss both grew up in Belle, West Virginia. It was a small town with a minuscule population of 1,162. Think about what the odds must have been for even one future sports star to hail from Belle, much less two. But Williams and Moss both found themselves on the same high school basketball team in the ’90s.
The two met before high school, playing pee-wee football together. Eventually, they transitioned from football to basketball (though clearly Moss kept going on the gridiron).
They were a formidable duo. Williams scored 1,000 points for his career and totaled 500 assists. During his senior season, Moss scored 30.2 points and 13.7 rebounds per game. In their final game together, they lost the state championship game to a rival school, 79-73.
One of the more famous Nike spots from the ’90s includes high school highlights of Moss and Williams playing together in high school set to the tune of the Dukes of Hazzard TV show theme.
It’s crazy to think that Moss and Williams could both come from such humble beginnings to eventually star on the biggest stages in their respective sports. But one’s an NFL Hall of Famer and the other’s an NBA champion — and they no doubt pushed each other to reach such heights.
