Amari Williams is always quiet.
At least, at first.
New environments are never easy. Transitioning from high school to college can send even the most social butterflies straight back into their cocoons. Being dropped into a completely unknown setting with fresh faces creates a new, seemingly impossible world to navigate.
Now imagine doing it nearly 3,300 miles away from home.
“He's really quiet,” said TJ Bickerstaff, who played with Williams at Drexel during his first season of college ball. “He's a real quiet guy, but you can tell he's goofy. I've known him since my early seasons, when he first came to school. Could tell he's really talented. But he's a real good dude. That’s my guy.”
Born in Nottingham and having lived in England his entire life, it’s not hard to envision why Williams may not have spoken much when he first stepped off the plane in Philadelphia.
He lived with Bickerstaff and Mate Okros during his freshman year, the latter of whom he played with back in the UK. Having Okros gave him an outlet.
Other than that, it was radio silence. And he took it to the extreme.
“When I was at Drexel my freshman year, I didn't speak till about December, January for real,” Williams said with a smirk.
All those quiet nights in West Philly were simply a continuation of the personality Williams has embodied his entire life. Now a true seven-footer, the big man’s disposition behind the scenes never matched up to his stature.
Even in high school—where he acted as a massive 6-foot-6, 15-year-old playing point guard for the Mansfield Giants—it took a while to get him out of his shell.
“It's crazy,” said Great Osobor, Williams’ high school teammate. “You guys don't even know, Amari used to be so shy, so quiet, but he's always been one of the most talented players I've played against and played with.”
Amari Williams doesn't want pasta for breakfast
Osobor teamed up with Williams at Myerscough College, where the Celtics rookie transferred when he was 16, but they competed against each other in the years leading up to it. “He's not hella talkative, but once you get to know him, and he gets comfortable, [he’s a] great teammate,” said Osobor.
During his high school years, Williams had the opportunity to travel across Europe playing basketball, representing the English national team at various U16, U18, and U20 tournaments and playing in the European Youth Basketball League.
And throughout the course of those adventures, Williams’ unique nature took new form.
“Amari's got better now, but he used to be such a picky eater,” Osobor said with a laugh. “And we'll go to dinner, and everybody's eating, and Amari would have a stack of just bread rolls, and at dinner, that's all he would eat. And we [were] there for a week, and all he ate was bread rolls.
“We used to give him a lot of stick for that, but he's expanded his appetite now. But if you see him, ask him about the bread rolls.”
Though, Williams paints a slightly different picture.
“I don't know why everyone says that, but I just don't like— Overseas is very different when it comes to food,” Williams said, defending himself vigorously. “And we went to, I think it was Latvia, and they gave us spaghetti with parmesan cheese for breakfast. That was it. So, I was like, 'I can't.' That's something I'm not eating.”
Evidently, bread rolls were the better alternative. “I’d rather just do that.”
After his expeditions in England and across Europe, Williams spent four years as a Dragon before heading to Kentucky for his fifth and final season of college basketball in the US.
From high school to the end of college ball, a lot has changed. Even his British accent is fading.
“He's not the same Amari that I first saw,” Bickerstaff said with a grin. “He got tattoos and stuff. He came here with no tattoos. I can tell he's talking a little differently.”
But the change has been more than just an accent.
The shy teenager who took nearly six months to speak to the kid sleeping one bed away from him still exists, but the adaptation process has become easier.
“It didn’t take that long at Kentucky, but at Drexel, like I said, it took a while,” said Williams. “But I feel like it'll be easier this year [in Boston] than it has ever [been]. Drexel was my freshman year, coming from England, that was the toughest time for me to really get to know people.”
And his teammates see the growth.
“He's a great dude,” said Jaxson Robinson, who played with Williams at Kentucky. “Specifically, off the court, we hung out all the time. Great teammate on the court. Very quiet, to himself. Once you get to know him, he gets out of his shell, and he's a funny dude.”
“I think he started off quiet, just trying to feel everybody out,” said LaMont Butler, another one of Williams’ Wildcat teammates. “And just as the season went on, and as we got through the summer, and things like that, he just kind of opened up. He's a big, goofy, soft dude, man. He's great to be around. That's one of my guys.”
The Amari Williams Weetabix sensation
Williams enjoyed a ton of success playing on the Rupp Arena floor. And while he didn’t reach the Defensive Player of the Year peak he managed in his final year at Drexel, playing in the SEC helped get more eyes on his game.
His days running the point for the Mansfield Giants morphed with his role as a seven-foot center at Kentucky, concocting one of the most skilled bigs in Division I basketball last season.
But old habits die hard. And the same picky eater who scarfed down bread rolls in Latvia found a way to bring British cereal all the way to Lexington, Kentucky.
“Towards the end of the season, during the tournament, he talked about how he used to eat Weetabix as a kid, and then he got a big NIL deal with it,” Butler said.
What started as Mark Pope trying to learn more about his player turned into a Weetabix phenomenon.
“If you know Coach Pope, he's a very talkative guy, loves to get to know you, even what you were doing as kids,” Williams said. “So I think it was the second game in the tournament, or the second day. I was actually having toast for breakfast, and he was like, 'Nah, that's not enough.' He was like, 'What did you eat as a kid?' And I told him [about Weetabix]. And Kentucky has a great staff, and they can find anything, anywhere. So, they went out, went to the international store, and got it for me.”
By the time Kentucky’s Round of 32 game against Illinois came around, Williams had a bulk supply of the cereal. And by the next round against Tennessee, even the broadcast had to try some.
Unfortunately for sideline reporter Evan Washburn, it’s more of an acquired taste. “I mean, my parents kind of forced me to eat it growing up, because it's like an energetic food. It's like baby food, so I got used to it.”
Luckily for Williams, he didn’t have to worry about a long search for Weetabix in Boston.
“Surprisingly, it was on our breakfast table,” Williams said. “I think it's because our training staff, I think a few, one of them is from Australia. So, I feel like he was eating it, because I went down there, and a lot of bars were gone. So, I knew someone on the staff or the team must have been having it. But it was great to see, I’ve had it before every game here, too.”
The Celtics are merely the next stop in Williams’ long, well-traveled basketball journey. Each destination has been different, with challenges ranging from breakfast pasta to a six-month silence to Weetabix withdrawals.
Yet every single person he’s come across has noticed the same constants.
And that’s the real Amari Williams.
“I was happy for my boy,” TJ Bickerstaff said of Williams getting drafted. “He can pass the ball for his size. He knows how to play the game the right way. So, I'm proud of him. He's gonna have a great year.”
“He was quiet at first, but we kind of got it out of him,” LaMont Butler said. “Real, real fun, goofy dude. Great guy to be around. Just a good person in general.
“He's a jokester. He loves to joke around,” Jaxson Robinson said. But more than anything, I think he's really protective over the people he cares about the most. So, that's one of the traits I love about Amari, especially as a teammate. He always had my back and my teammates' backs. So, just a great dude
“We went through a period last year when we were talking three, four times a week,” said Great Osobor. “Just, 'How're your games going? What'd you see? How you feel?' And checking in on each other. So, he's a great guy.
“Can't say enough good things about him.”