Comparisons can do more harm than good for prospects poised to star at the next level, but Cameron Williams leans into the fun. He’s well aware of the talk of “Baby Kevin Durant,” his favorite player from his childhood favorite Oklahoma City Thunder team, and cracks a smile hearing it. Though LeBron James is his personal choice for the greatest of all time, and one of his most meaningful influences on and off the floor, Williams admits he sees some resemblance to Durant.
“I would say our size,” Williams told Babcock Hoops in an exclusive Zoom interview. “We have very similar builds and all that. I think we’re both really good shooters. He’s probably a better ball-handler, but just the way that he gets to his spots. I look up to all the stuff he does, and I try to emulate what he does in a way.”
By the same token, Williams doesn’t believe Durant is his best comp.
The Durant and Garnett Comparisons
Take a conversation he had with Damin Lopez, his head coach at St. Mary’s Catholic in Phoenix, Arizona. To Lopez, evaluating that comparison requires looking beyond college and pro tape and going back to where both players were at the same stage.
“I looked at KD in high school; he was already advanced,” Lopez told Babcock Hoops. “He was taking the ball off the dribble, getting to the cup, shooting the ball deep, and Cam does that too, but we had really worked a lot on Cam’s footwork in the post as well.”
Once a standout starter at Pepperdine University and later an assistant for the program in the late 2000s, Lopez remembers summers at Impact Basketball in Las Vegas with longtime training guru Joe Abunassar. Working with many players at the facility, one man stood out as a “mean motherf***er” between the lines: Kevin Garnett.
As Williams got into his upperclassmen seasons, Lopez had a sneaking suspicion he wished he had discovered sooner. He dusted off the old Garnett footage and observed intently, noticing his scoring acumen both inside and outside.
“Their bodies’ frames were almost identical,” Lopez said. “They were both 6-foot-11, and they were slender. It was crazy. I saw KG in the post doing work, and I was like, ‘That’s a lot like Cam’s mobility and his footwork.’ And then, he hit a couple of turnaround jumpers, and that was the one thing missing from Cam. So that next week, we started working on turnaround jumpers, and I kid you not, he got it so quickly.
“He’s so good at it, especially when he’s on the right block, and he turns over that left shoulder, and he’s got a slight little fade to it. It’s pretty amazing what he does, the fluidity with it. He started watching more KG videos. KG’s more outwardly, in your face; he’s a dawg. Cam doesn’t like to lose at all, but he’s not as boisterous as KG was. But other than that, skill-set-wise, [it’s close].”
The Person Behind the Prospect
According to Cam and his father, Charles, he has a laid-back, chill personality. If he weren’t an athlete, he figures he’d be your average teenager with a regular job.
He spends plenty of time with his family, and when there’s downtime, he fires up NBA 2K, Fortnite, and NCAA College Football on his favorite system. School, basketball, video games, and workouts sum up his day-to-day life. “He likes to build Legos, and we used to build the Death Star,” Charles told Babcock Hoops. “We didn’t finish it, but we almost did. He likes to draw. He likes fishing. That’s pretty much the main things.”
Cam has a curious, creative brain. He enjoys how chemicals react with one another and, beyond that, is interested in financial dealings. Close friends tend to get a “goofy” side of Cam, cracking jokes when he’s in his element.
Charles, his mother, and his brothers shaped him into the person he is today. Growing up with few worries, Cam began his sporting life by playing baseball and football. Finding success as a wide receiver and safety, he was good on the gridiron, yet reached an impasse as he kept growing taller.
Football was his father’s first love until he broke his leg. Charles continued his athletic career as a junior college basketball player at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. Following in his old man’s footsteps, Cam also brought his ball-tracking and catching skills to the hardwood. He found it naturally by just having fun with the game.
All it took was an unforgettable encounter in third grade at a Phoenix Suns-Indiana Pacers game in his hometown, which led him to gravitate toward hoops on a higher level. Along with his little brother and AAU ball club, Cam met everybody on the team, and they signed the Josh Jackson-themed shirt he was wearing.
“Him and my younger son were super excited to get that from the players and talked about it for like a week,” Charles said. “The biggest one was Devin Booker, with him being the star player, and he’s a real chill, laid-back guy, too. They realized he’s human, and he’s like one of us. I think them seeing that sparked more of an interest in it for both of them.”
A Hometown McDonald’s All-American Moment
Just down the road in Glendale at Desert Diamond Arena, the roles were reversed for Cam almost a decade later. Representing his community, he became the 12th men’s participant from the state of Arizona all-time and the third in St. Mary’s history to be selected to the McDonald’s All-American Team.
The difference is that, in 2007, Jerryd Bayless played in Louisville. Cam performed in his backyard, which made it easier for his circle to celebrate the weekend with him. “The stars aligned perfectly,” Lopez said. “We all loved it. Just seeing him out there is so special, and we had our entire team up in a suite. Everybody’s just down there looking at him. You’re just so proud that you had the chance to be a part of his life and helped him grow a little bit. It’s a cool thing to see one of your own compete at a high level like that.”
“I still don’t think he realizes what he really did,” Charles added.
It’s a memory Cam knows will “last forever.”
“It means a lot,” Cam said. “It definitely adds a lot of pressure onto me, but I think it’s good. A lot of people wish to be in my position, so it just makes me want to lock in even more and keep going even harder. It’s just crazy because I always dreamed about being in this position, and I never thought it would, like, really happen. “I used to always see Marvin Bagley, Evan Mobley, all them type of guys playing at HoopHall and all that stuff, and it’s like, this year, I did that.”
Why Duke Made Sense
Suiting up for Team West against Team East, Cam got an up-close and personal look at Deron Rippey Jr., his future teammate at Duke. “He’s really hard to guard,” Cam said. “He’s really quick, especially ’cause he’s a little guard, and I’m taller. It’s like, he’s just too quick. Way too quick. But nah, he’s really good, and I’m excited to play with him next year.
“I think we’re just gonna come out there and do whatever it takes to win. That’s my mindset, just to go out there and do whatever it takes to win. Whether I have to rebound, I’ve got to make the pass, do all that stuff.” Usually one to live in the moment, as he was watching March Madness, Cam caught himself daydreaming of his first Duke-North Carolina game with the Cameron Crazies and the Final Four stage.
