Corey “Homicide” Williams, New York streetball legend, has died at the age of 46

N.B.A

From Ryan Glass Mirror

Corey “Homicide” Williams, a legend in the New York City streetball community, has died at the age of 46 after a battle with colon cancer.

Williams had a long professional basketball career, including stints in the NBA D-League (now the G League) and the National Basketball League in Australia, where he once won the MVP after making a name for himself as a streetball basketball player.

“I approached it with a specific goal. I didn’t necessarily want to win games, I wanted to make a splash. And I wanted to achieve that through the volume. You see, on the playground there is no coach who will take you down for turning the ball over. It’s about style over substance,” Williams wrote for The Players’ Tribune in 2016, chronicling his journey.

“To build my reputation, I put together a team of strong players who would give me the ball. And because it was my team, if I got the ball 30 times, you better believe I would shoot it 30 times. And with that freedom, I started getting a lot of buckets. You were able to block my shot three or four times, but I didn’t go to the bench. You didn’t get off easy. I wanted to come right back until I got mine.”

At first, Williams split his time between the playground and playing professionally abroad.

“Slowly but surely I made a name for myself and offers started coming in from professional teams. Now mind you, they were bullshit offers, but that didn’t faze me. I mean, if you’re living out of a dumpster but that’s all you’re offered, what are you going to do?” Williams wrote.

“You make it work. At the same time, I knew I still needed to establish my representation in NYC. So I started dividing my time between the country that wanted to take me in and the playgrounds around the city. I would be in Brazil in the fall, in Stockholm in the spring, and then go straight back to New York to cross names off my list.”

Williams’ greatest success came in the NBL, where he was named league MVP in 2010 as a member of the Townsville Crocodiles.

The NBL community mourns Williams.

“Having Corey as part of the NBL commentary team was by far one of the best decisions I have ever made and without his passion for the league and his enthusiasm for growing the game in Australia we simply would not be where we are “Today…” NBL CEO Larry Kestelman said in a statement.

“There will never be another Corey ‘Homicide’ Williams, may he rest in peace.”

ESPN NBL reporter Olgun Uluc remembered him as a human being.

“It is a truly enormous, tragic loss for the Australian basketball community. Without his presence on and off the field, the NBL will not reach the heights it is today.” Uluc wrote on X.

“It is incredibly difficult to lose Corey, the friend. He touched so many people’s lives in so many ways, but I was lucky enough to see firsthand how much he cared about Australian basketball and the future of the NBL.

“The self-promotion and the bombastic attitude were undoubtedly who he was, but he also knew damn well the role it all played in promoting the game.” He used himself as a vessel to lift us all up, in basketball and in life.

“His family should be so proud of the monumental legacy he leaves behind.”