Jalen Williams Visits His Old Stomping Grounds

The Santa Clara sports writers chatted with the rookie NBA guard live on KSCU

Jalen Williams was in the house to support Santa Clara Men's Basketball on Thursday, Jan 19. 

Williams, who now plays for Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA, returned home to enjoy an 83-76 victory over Brigham Young University. Last season, Williams infamously brought the Broncos to victory against BYU with a buzzer-beater, derailing the Cougars’ season. 

During his return to the Leavey Center, Williams leaned into his celebrity status, wearing shades and an all black outfit. JDub took pictures with students, made an impromptu speech for the Bronco Bench foundation and received a standing ovation a few minutes into the first half.

Jalen later sat down for a pregame interview live on air with The Santa Clara sports writers Thomas Dunn and Zach Merrill. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TSC: Your schedule doesn’t really coincide with college basketball's season, but you still made it to this game. How does it feel to be back on campus, and in NorCal?

Williams: It’s great. It worked out really well with the students getting my jersey, like a stroke of chance that I was able to get here. And they are playing BYU, and with all the history with that, it was dope that they made time for me to get here. This is the only time I’ll be able to do this my whole rookie year, so it is really special.

Credit: KSCU Official

How are you enjoying your rookie year? We’ve been supporting you from afar, and you’ve been great having so much poise, being so in control and honestly just being you out there.

Man, I'm just playing basketball, bro. It’s just fun being out there, going through everything for the first time, embracing the process of it all. There are a lot worse things you can be doing than playing basketball and getting money.

That is 100% true.

So, back at the scene of the crime from last year’s BYU game – I remember being there as a fan. How about that last-second floater? When you walked in and you saw the opponent was BYU, did those memories come racing back?

Absolutely, I don’t even want to lie. I was trying to formulate a lie, it's hard to not think about. It helped with my stock going through the draft process, for us to be able to beat a big team like BYU. It’s a really special moment [to be here for the game]; I played with a lot of these guys on the team from that year so it’s a shared memory.

How are you enjoying the Youtube life? How are you mixing that into your basketball life?

It’s been fun, a lot harder than I initially thought. I think everybody forgets that we travel so much. You know, [we] get home at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., and I film some of these videos at 4:00 a.m. It’s been fun to figure that whole thing out; it’s just another new thing to add. I have so much free time without school and waiting to play games – it’s a good outlet to have. My cameraman ended up living with me, so it worked out really well.

I imagine your sleep schedule gets crazy with some of those back-to-backs in the league.

Yeah, nah, my sleeping schedule is definitely different. I think when we flew into Orlando one night, got in at 4:00 a.m., played that night, then flew back to Oklahoma and played another game.

Wow, the NBA schedule is no joke. Would you say it’s a culture shock?

I think the traveling when we did our first back-to-back was a lot, because in college you play two games a week, maybe three games max. That was my biggest worry – how I would be able to train my body enough to be ready for 82 games and, I mean, I feel great. Knock on wood. 

I can’t imagine that elbow to the face in the opening game felt good at all.

I feel like it was a good thing it happened early. You know, kind of get it out the way. That was a nice start to my season.

I’ll send us off here with one very lighthearted question: Raising Canes or Dave’s Hot Chicken?

Dave’s Hot Chicken. I’m not switching up. There needs to be a Dave’s out here. There’s still not a Canes out here, is there?

The closest one is at Oakland Airport.

How far is that?

If you go up I-880 it’s on your way back.

I’ll make sure my driver knows that. Canes might have to happen. They need a Dave’s for sure. There’s a Dave’s in Oklahoma, I got to be careful, I gotta pick my spots. I can’t go there every day.

Ladies and Gentlemen, that was Jalen Williams, guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Jalen, thank you for joining us. Enjoy the rest of your time back at campus, we’re glad you’re back.

Yeah, appreciate you guys.

The interview with Jalen is available for listening on the KSCU website.