Although Lou Williams was born in Memphis, his hoop career began blossoming in Atlanta when he played at South Gwinnett High School and established himself as one of the best guards in the country.
Deemed the Naismith Prep Player of the Year and a McDonald’s All-American during his senior year, Lou-Will was considered a can’t-miss prospect, especially after he was ranked as the top shooting guard in the nation and the third-best player of his class.
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However, given the depth of the 2005 NBA Draft class and his own failures in numerous pre-draft camps, he was projected to be a late first- or early second-round pick. It was timely then that the Atlanta Hawks, his hometown team, had the first pick of the second round.
As Lou-Will narrated, while it would have been a fantastic story to end up playing for the city he grew up in, it wasn’t meant to be.
A throwaway pick
As the draft night unfolded on June 28, 2005, in New York, Lou recalled finding out he had been picked 45th overall, outside his own draft party. Although he was grateful to get selected, he was frustrated with the entire process, having dropped so far down the draft despite his obvious scoring talents and diamond-in-the-rough potential.
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“Walked out of my party ’cause I was frustrated the whole thing,” Williams shared on the “Out the Mud” podcast. “So, the Hawks had the first pick in the second round. They told my agent, ‘There’s no way we picking this kid with the 31st pick.'”
While the Hawks had no doubt about Lou-Will’s skill set, what they were most concerned about was the PR nightmare they would have on their hands if they got another hometown player and nailed him to the bench.
“They didn’t pick me because they had Josh Smith the year before. They had just drafted Josh, but Kevin Willis was still getting them minutes. Josh was on the bench,” Williams explained. “So, the Hawks said, ‘Look, we can’t draft them because we can’t have two homegrown Atlanta kids on our bench not getting playing time. This fan base going to kill us.'”
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“‘Like, if we got Josh Smith and Lou Williams, both from Atlanta, from here, that got fan bases and we don’t play them, it’s going to be a s—t storm for us. We can’t take them,'” he continued. “So, they ended up drafting Salim Stoudamire.”
Salim ended up playing only three seasons in the league, all with Atlanta. He averaged 8.0 points a game but was never the court general or playmaker that the Hawks needed.
How Lou-Will ended up in Philly
With Atlanta off the table and Lou-Will not having worked out for any of the teams that were drafting early in the second round, the savvy guard thought his pro dreams were in jeopardy. Fortunately, his agent also represented the Philadelphia 76ers’ head coach at the time, Mo Cheeks.
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“They had the 45th pick and really didn’t have no direction with what they wanted to do with the pick. It was kind of like a throwaway pick,” he narrated. “And you know, my agent told him, ‘Yo, if y’all don’t have a real, real plan with that pick, if I was y’all, I go get the high school kid. I go — I go get Lou Williams or whatever.’ So Philly ended up drafting me based on a relationship.”
But with the Sixers’ backcourt already stacked with Allen Iverson, Kevin Ollie, Willie Green and John Salmons, Lou knew what he was getting himself into and prepared his mind to embrace what was to come — a lot of time on the bench.
“Because of that, it gave me an opportunity to look at it like an internship. So when I got drafted, I know I’m not going to play year one. I know I’m not going to play year two. So, it was the perfect fit for me,” Lou remarked.
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At 19, Lou played in only 30 games as a rookie. However, the lessons he learned from his veteran teammates proved invaluable and helped him become a lethal bucket-getter who won three Sixth Man of the Year awards during his 17-year NBA career.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Mar 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.