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Natalie Williams
Las Vegas Aces
General Manager
Personal information
Born November 30, 1970 (1970-11-30) (age 53)
Long Beach, California, U.S.
High school Taylorsville (Taylorsville, Utah)
Listed height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight 210 lb (95 kg)
Career information
College UCLA (1990–1994)
NBA Draft 1999 / Round: 1 / Pick: 3rd overall
Selected by the Utah Starzz
Pro career 1996–2005
Career history
1996–1998 Portland Power
1999–2002 Utah Starzz
2003–2005 Indiana Fever
Career highlights and awards
  • 4× WNBA All-Star (1999–2001, 2003)
  • 3× All-WNBA First Team (1999–2001)
  • 2× All-ABL First Team (1997, 1998)
  • ABL MVP (1998)
  • Pac-10 Player of the Year (1994)
  • 3× First-team All-Pac-10 (1992–1994)
Career WNBA statistics
Points 2,894 (13.1 ppg)
Rebounds 1,832 (8.3 rpg)
Assists 308 (1.4 apg)
Medals
Women's basketball
Olympic rings.svg
Representing  United States
Olympic Games
Gold 2000 Sydney Team competition
World Cup
Gold 1998 Germany Team competition
Gold 2002 China Team competition
Jones Cup
Gold 1996 Team competition

Natalie Jean Williams (born November 30, 1970) is an American basketball executive and former player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Williams was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. She was also an accomplished volleyball player at UCLA. Since 2022, Williams has served as the General Manager of the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces

Early years

Williams is the daughter of Nate Williams, a former basketball player who played for the Cincinnati Royals/Kansas City-Omaha Kings, New Orleans Jazz and the Golden State Warriors in the National Basketball Association during an eight-year career.

Although she was born in Southern California, she went to high school at Taylorsville High School in Utah.

She also has two half brothers and one half sister. Both of her brothers played basketball but her sister chose to focus her athletic abilities on tennis.

College years

She attended the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and graduated there in 1994. She was a four-year letter-winner in both basketball and volleyball, and is the first woman to earn All-America honors in both basketball and volleyball in the same year. She also led UCLA to NCAA volleyball titles in 1990 and 1991. She won the Honda-Broderick Award (now the Honda Sports Award) as the nation's best female collegiate volleyball player in both 1992 and 1993.

UCLA statistics

Source

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1993-94 UCLA 24 561 57.0% 51.7% 13.1 1.3 3.0 1.0 23.4
1992-93 UCLA 23 488 47.3% 74.8% 13.5 1.2 2.5 1.4 21.2
1991-92 UCLA 23 495 56.0% 63.1% 13.8 1.3 2.8 1.3 21.5
1990-91 UCLA 19 269 50.0% 67.0% 10.3 0.7 1.6 0.6 14.2
Career UCLA 89 1813 52.8% 63.2% 12.8 1.1 2.5 1.1 20.4

ABL career

Natalie Williams played three seasons for the Portland Power in the American Basketball League (ABL). She was traded to the Long Beach Stingrays in April 1998, but when the team folded, she was reassigned to the Power. She was a two-time All-ABL first team selection, the 1998 ABL M.V.P., finished her first season as the league's top rebounder, averaging 12.5 rebounds per game, and on January 9, 1998, she grabbed a league record 22 rebounds.

WNBA career

After the ABL folded, she was selected by her hometown team, the Utah Starzz in the first round (third pick overall) of the 1999 WNBA draft on May 4, 1999.

She played with the Starzz from 1999 to 2002. However, just a few weeks prior to the start of the 2003 season, she was traded to the Indiana Fever in a multi-player deal on May 1, 2003.

Prior to the start of the 2005 season, Williams announced that she would retire after the season ended, saying that she will concentrate on raising her adopted twins, as well as serving as an assistant coach for Skyline' high school Girls basketball team in Salt Lake City, Utah, and launching a new career in the real estate business. She is remembered by fans as one of the best rebounding power forward in the early history of the WNBA.

USA Basketball

Williams was invited to be a member of the Jones Cup team representing the US in 1996. She helped the team to a 9–0 record, and the gold medal in the event. Williams averaged 9.1 points per game. She also recorded 7.0 rebounds per game, highest on the team.

Williams was named to the USA national team in 1998. The national team traveled to Berlin, Germany in July and August 1998 for the FIBA World Championships. The USA team won a close opening game against Japan 95–89, then won their next six games easily. In the semifinal game against Brazil, the USA team was behind as much as ten points in the first half, but the USA went on to win 93–79. The gold medal game was a rematch against Russia. In the first game, the USA team dominated almost from the beginning, but in the rematch, the team from Russia took the early lead and led much of the way. With under two minutes remaining, the USA was down by two points but the USA responded, then held on to win the gold medal 71–65. Williams averaged 12.3 points per game, second highest on the team, and averaged 9.6 rebounds per game, highest on the team.

Williams won an Olympic Gold Medal as a member of the U.S. women's basketball team during the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

In 2002, Williams was named to the national team which competed in the World Championships in Zhangjiagang, Changzhou and Nanjing, China. The team was coached by Van Chancellor. The USA team won all nine games, including a close title game against Russia, which was a one-point game late in the game. Williams averaged 5.9 points per game.

Outside basketball

In 2002, she opened a restaurant called Natalie's in Salt Lake City, Utah. She carried the Olympic Torch in the Salt Lake City area prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics. She also was named to the United States 2002 World Championship Games team.

She considers Cheryl Miller as her basketball role model.

Career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career high ° League leader

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
1999 Utah 28 26 34.1 .519 .000 .754 9.2 0.9 1.4 0.8 2.4 18.0
2000 Utah 29 29 35.8 .490 .600 .798 11.6 1.8 1.2 0.6 2.7 18.7
2001 Utah 31 31 34.3 .490 .000 .729 9.9 1.8 1.3 0.3 2.3 14.2
2002 Utah 31 31 32.5 .435 .417 .742 8.2 1.2 1.2 0.5 2.3 11.3
2003 Indiana 34 34 31.0 .485 .000 .709 7.5 1.4 1.3 0.6 2.1 13.4
2004 Indiana 34 34 28.1 .454 .000 .697 6.9 1.8 1.2 0.7 1.9 10.3
2005 Indiana 34 34 23.6 .415 .000 .672 5.5 0.9 1.0 0.4 1.7 7.4
Career 7 years, 2 teams 221 219 31.1 .474 .286 .741 8.3 1.4 1.2 0.6 2.1 13.1

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2001 Utah 2 2 28.5 .500 .833 8.0 0.0 1.5 0.5 2.5 10.5
2002 Utah 5 5 37.2 .532 .250 .679 9.2 1.4 1.0 1.4 1.6 14.0
2005 Indiana 4 4 33.5 .425 .000 .813 7.5 1.5 1.3 0.5 0.3 11.8
Career 3 years, 2 teams 11 11 34.3 .485 .200 .740 8.4 1.2 1.2 0.9 1.3 12.5

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Natalie Williams para niños

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