*By Michael Teich*
After a motorcycle accident ended his basketball career in 2003, former Blue Devils standout and Chicago Bull Jay Williams found a new calling.
Williams was a one-time NCAA champion and second overall pick in the NBA draft, but more than a decade later he's built an extremely successful career as a full-time game and media analyst for ESPN.
"I don’t look at it as a tragedy. I look at it as a gift," he told Cheddar Wednesday of his athletic career-ending accident.
Williams's latest project is new YouTube Originals docu-series "Best Shot," executive-produced by LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter. The series, which debuted last week, follows Williams in his new post as a member of Newark Central High School's boys basketball coaching staff. The 8-episode doc, Williams said, exposes the tough challenges young athletes faceーon and off the court.
Although his accident doesn't define him, Williams tells Cheddar he views it as an opportunity to make an impact on the sports world. Earlier this year, he weighed in on the latest debateーwhether college athletes should be paid for court time. He thinks it's about time players get a share of the nearly $1.1 billion in revenue that the NCAA earned last year. He even called for an outright player boycott of the NCAA's Final Four tournament in a [Twitter video](https://twitter.com/RealJayWilliams/status/968643972288704513) last February. Williams's video followed the example of other big names in sports like his TV-partner LeBron and ex-player and fellow ESPN analyst Jalen Rose.
Williams may be optimistic about change, but he knows that it may take a while.
"It’s going to take something monumental to happen."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/jay-williams-gives-his-best-shot-in-new-youtube-docu-series).
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019.
Following a 2018 Supreme Court ruling year that cleared the way for sports gambling, fans in seven states can bet on the upcoming Super Bowl for the first time ー and leaders in the budding industry are anticipating the Big Game will deliver their biggest day yet. “We expect the Super Bowl to be our single biggest day in the company’s history,” Mike Raffensperger, the chief marketing officer for betting platform FanDuel, told Cheddar.
FightCamp is a new fitness company that streams boxing classes from top instructors direct to consumers. The classes can be tailored to the needs of boxers at all levels of expertise ー from newbies to punching pros said co-founder Tommy Duquette.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Jan. 25, 2019.
The New York Knicks and its jersey sponsor, the website-building platform Squarespace, are doling out assists to four local businesses as part of the second annual "Make It Awards." "Partnering with Squarespace to help those entrepreneurs get their businesses to the next level was something we were very interested in doing and it's been a major hit," said MSG Sports' senior vice president of business operations, Kristin Bernert, in an interview on Cheddar.
The Delaware Blue Coats will make their debut Wednesday night at the brand new Philadelphia 76ers Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Del., and the team will share the spotlight with an arena that boasts five stories, can seat 2,500 fans, and includes three NBA-regulation basketball courts. The flashy new arena was designed to promote youth sports in the state of Delaware and the greater Philadelphia region. "It's all geared towards youth," Chris Heck, the president of the Philadelphia 76ers, told Cheddar.
The NBA is transparent about its approval of legalized, regulated sports betting ー but the league is also clearly communicating that it wants a fair share of the money wagered on its games. "It's our view that if state governments are going to be authorizing private entities, in most cases casinos, to generate significant revenue ー billions of dollars of revenue ー off of the NBA competitions, that the NBA participate in some way," said the NBA's head of fantasy and gaming Scott Kaufman-Ross.
Former Green Bay Packer Ahman Green is a four time Pro Bowler, but he's also an avid gamer. When it comes to Halo he's just another fan that looks up to professionals like Proximitty and LethuL for help with his improving his skills.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday Jan. 23, 2019.
If there's one person aside from the 800,000 unpaid federal workers who is hoping the government shutdown ends soon, it's Keisha Lance Bottoms. The mayor of Atlanta is less than two weeks away from hosting Super Bowl LIII, which is a logistical and security nightmare even when the city's airport *isn't* being slowed down by mass TSA sick-outs. "I'm extremely concerned," Bottoms said of the possibility that the shutdown may continue through Super Bowl weekend.
