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"I knew I had a long-term option, one that's
better than basketball," she said by phone
Monday.
But basketball is a part of Williams' life. She
spent her childhood in Portland playing the
game, watching it, living it.
The game was fun.
For three years at Jesuit High School, the
game was fun. During her senior season at
Reynolds High School, while leading her team
with 26.4 points per game, basketball was re
ally fun.
But then a December rolled around four
years later, and for Williams, the game she
once knew and loved wasn't there anymore.
Her sanctimonious departure from Oregon
on Dec. 12, 2002, left the former guard with a
hole in her life and the Ducks with a gap in
their starting lineup. V
That's when it started.
And it hasn't ended.
Even as she played for the Los Angeles
Sparks last season.
Even as she spent a week with the Seattle
Storm in the team's training camp. That one
week where she had a chance to prove she be
longed; but in reality, Seattle head coach Anne
Donovan couldn't see her as more than the
10th or 11th player off the bench, at most.
"Basketball just hasn't been fun for me,"
Williams said of her recent adventures on the
court. "I just wasn't getting the same satisfaction.
It could be for a number of reasons. At the pro
level, it's not about fun, it's about business.
"Everything that happened at Oregon took
so much out of me."
That departure from Oregon still sits dark
over in the comer, idle, untouched and gather
ing cob webs. It's a dead subject, a done deal,
something that has been placed on the back
burner and forgotten.
Neither Williams nor current Oregon head
coach Bev Smith have publicly said why the de
cision to remove the former player from the
team was made. We're all left with speculation,
rumors and questions.
There's a chance most outside the program
will never know.
Shaquala
Williams (3), seen
here early in the
2002-03 season
against Southern
Oregon, is going
to be an Oregon
law student
beginning in
August. The
former Duck point
guard has played
for the WNBA's
Los Angeles team
and recently tried
out for Seattle, but
she was cut a
week ago.
Emerald
Maybe that's best for all. Maybe in the long
run it will hurt everyone in the equation.
Either way, Williams has tried to move on.
She thought Oregon had as well.
"In my mind, I thought it was over, done
with," Williams said. "I spoke with one of the
coaches the other day. They spoke about it,
and it was like it was kind of an open wound.
"I've moved on."
And so has Dan Muscatell, the head coach
at Sacramento State. Williams spent time there
this past season as an assistant, spending most
of her time coordinating tape exchange and
producing scouting reports.
Muscatell, a former Oregon assistant, discred
its any rumors about Williams and her person
ality — and there have been some — for her
quick departure from Seattle and the WNBA.
After all, he said, she did a great job with the
Hornets and is welcome to come back.
"She was invaluable from the aspect of co
ordinating," Muscatell said. "She has just got a
great feel for the game. Nothing she did sur
prised me. She was even better in some areas
than I expected she would be."
For now, Williams will focus on her life as
an academic. She applied to Willamette Uni
versity in Salem, I loward University in Wash
ington, D.C., and Seattle University.
But Oregon was always on her mind. Eu
gene, after all, is like her second home.
"Ever since I've been young, I've never wanted
to go far away from home," she said. "My best
experiences in Eugene were not in basketball."
Here's to three more years in Eugene.
Contact the sports editor
at hankhagen@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
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