Pat Williams (NBA)
Encyclopedia
Pat Williams is a senior vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic
, a motivational speaker and former minor league
baseball player. Williams--born May 3, 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
--was raised in Wilmington, Delaware
.
organization. The first two were as a catcher for the Miami Marlins
when that was a minor league
team in the Florida State League
. Following that stint, Williams worked in the front office for five years. He also spent three years in the Minnesota Twins
organization. Since 1968, he has been affiliated with NBA teams in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia—including the 1983 World Champion 76ers--and now the Orlando Magic
which he co-founded in 1986 and helped lead to the NBA Finals
in 1995. Twenty-three of his teams have gone to the NBA playoffs and five have made the NBA Finals
. In 1996, Pat was named as one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history by a national publication.
, traded for Julius Erving
, Moses Malone
, and Penny Hardaway
, and won four NBA draft
lotteries, including back-to-back winners in 1993 and 1994 and most recently in 2005. He also drafted Charles Barkley
, Shaquille O'Neal
, Maurice Cheeks
, Andrew Toney
and Darryl Dawkins
. Williams signed Billy Cunningham
, Chuck Daly
, and Matt Guokas
to their first professional coaching contracts. Nineteen of his former players have become NBA head coaches.
companies and national associations to universities and nonprofits. Clients include AllState, American Express, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Disney, Honeywell, IBM, ING, Lockheed Martin, Nike, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Tyson Foods to name a few.
Williams is the author of 55 books, including his latest title, Extreme Dreams Depend on Teams. He hosts three weekly radio shows broadcast in Orlando, FL.
Williams has been featured in Sports Illustrated
, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping
, Family Circle
, The Wall Street Journal
, Focus on the Family
, New Man
, The Maury Povich Show and Dr. Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power.
, Bob Gibson
, Fergie Jenkins, Rollie Fingers
, Gaylord Perry
, Phil Niekro
, and Tom Seaver
.
, and his master’s degree at Indiana University
. He has a doctorate in Humane Letters from Flagler College
.
Championship team. He was inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame
in 2001. He won the DECA Entrepreneurial Spirit award at DECA's International Career Development Conference in 2011.
Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic is a professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. They play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association and are currently coached by Stan Van Gundy...
, a motivational speaker and former minor league
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
baseball player. Williams--born May 3, 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
--was raised in Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
.
Baseball career
Pat spent seven years in the Philadelphia PhilliesPhiladelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
organization. The first two were as a catcher for the Miami Marlins
Fort Myers Miracle
The Fort Myers Miracle is the Class A Advanced minor league baseball affiliate of the Minnesota Twins Major League Baseball club, currently managed by Jake Mauer. Home games are played at the Lee County Sports Complex in Hammond Stadium, which has a capacity of 7,500, and opened in...
when that was a minor league
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
team in the Florida State League
Florida State League
The Florida State League is a Class A-Advanced minor league baseball league operating in the state of Florida. They are one of three leagues currently operating in Class A-Advanced, the third highest of six classifications of minor leagues...
. Following that stint, Williams worked in the front office for five years. He also spent three years in the Minnesota Twins
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
organization. Since 1968, he has been affiliated with NBA teams in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia—including the 1983 World Champion 76ers--and now the Orlando Magic
Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic is a professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. They play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association and are currently coached by Stan Van Gundy...
which he co-founded in 1986 and helped lead to the NBA Finals
1995 NBA Finals
The 1995 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1994–95 NBA season. The series pitted the Orlando Magic against the Houston Rockets. The pre-series hype and build-up of the Finals was centered around the meeting of the two centers Shaquille O'Neal of the Magic and Hakeem Olajuwon of the Rockets...
in 1995. Twenty-three of his teams have gone to the NBA playoffs and five have made the NBA Finals
NBA Finals
The NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association . The series was named the NBA World Championship Series until 1986....
. In 1996, Pat was named as one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history by a national publication.
Basketball management
In his NBA career, he has traded Pete MaravichPete Maravich
Peter "Pistol Pete" Press Maravich was an American professional basketball player. Born and raised in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Maravich starred in college at Louisiana State University and played for three NBA teams until injuries induced him to retire in 1980...
, traded for Julius Erving
Julius Erving
Julius Winfield Erving II , commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is a retired American basketball player who helped launch a modern style of play that emphasizes leaping and play above the rim....
, Moses Malone
Moses Malone
Moses Eugene Malone is a retired American Hall of Fame basketball player who starred in both the American Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association...
, and Penny Hardaway
Penny Hardaway
Anfernee Deon "Penny" Hardaway is a former American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association , specializing as a small forward, shooting guard, and point guard. His most productive years came in his days as a member of the Orlando Magic as well as the early...
, and won four NBA draft
NBA Draft
The NBA Draft is an annual event in which the thirty teams from the National Basketball Association can draft players who are eligible and wish to join the league. These players are usually amateur U.S. college basketball players, but international players are also eligible to be drafted...
lotteries, including back-to-back winners in 1993 and 1994 and most recently in 2005. He also drafted Charles Barkley
Charles Barkley
Charles Wade Barkley is a former American professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association's most dominating power forwards...
, Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal , nicknamed "Shaq" , is a former American professional basketball player. Standing tall and weighing , he was one of the heaviest players ever to play in the NBA...
, Maurice Cheeks
Maurice Cheeks
Maurice Edward "Mo" Cheeks is a retired American professional basketball player and assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association from May 23, 2005 to December 13, 2008...
, Andrew Toney
Andrew Toney
Andrew Toney is an American former professional basketball player who played for the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers from 1980 to 1988...
and Darryl Dawkins
Darryl Dawkins
Darryl Dawkins is a retired American professional basketball player, most noted for his days with the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, although he also played briefly for the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz late in his career...
. Williams signed Billy Cunningham
Billy Cunningham
William John "Billy" Cunningham is an American former professional basketball player and coach, who was nicknamed the Kangaroo Kid.- Beginnings :...
, Chuck Daly
Chuck Daly
Charles Jerome "Chuck" Daly was an American basketball head coach. He led the Detroit Pistons to consecutive National Basketball Association Championships in 1989 and 1990, and the Dream Team to the men's basketball gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He had a 14-year NBA coaching...
, and Matt Guokas
Matt Guokas
Matthew George "Matt" Guokas, Jr. is a former American professional basketball player and coach.-Playing career:...
to their first professional coaching contracts. Nineteen of his former players have become NBA head coaches.
Family
Pat and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted from four nations. Pat and his previous wife, Jill, were divorced in 1996.Motivational speaker
Williams is also a motivational speaker. He has addressed thousands of executives in organizations ranging from Fortune 500Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
companies and national associations to universities and nonprofits. Clients include AllState, American Express, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Disney, Honeywell, IBM, ING, Lockheed Martin, Nike, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Tyson Foods to name a few.
Williams is the author of 55 books, including his latest title, Extreme Dreams Depend on Teams. He hosts three weekly radio shows broadcast in Orlando, FL.
Williams has been featured in Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...
, Family Circle
Family Circle
Family Circle is an American women's magazine published 15 times a year by Meredith Corporation. It began publication in 1932 as a magazine distributed at supermarkets such as Piggly Wiggly and Safeway. Cowles Magazines and Broadcasting bought the magazine in 1962. The New York Times Company bought...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...
, New Man
New Man
New Man was a prominent American Christian lifestyle men's magazine, founded in 1994, and becoming an online publication in 2008. Its stated purpose is "Helping men to develop Christ-centered perspectives that will transform their lives, their families and their worlds."...
, The Maury Povich Show and Dr. Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power.
Fantasy camps
Every winter, he plays in Major League Fantasy Camps and has caught Hall of Famers Bob FellerBob Feller
On December 8, 1941, Feller enlisted in the Navy, volunteering immediately for combat service, becoming the first Major League Baseball player to do so following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7. Feller served as Gun Captain aboard the USS Alabama, and missed four seasons during his service...
, Bob Gibson
Bob Gibson
Robert "Bob" Gibson is a retired American professional baseball player. Nicknamed "Hoot" and "Gibby", he was a right-handed pitcher who played his entire 17-year Major League Baseball career with St. Louis Cardinals...
, Fergie Jenkins, Rollie Fingers
Rollie Fingers
Roland Glen Fingers is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. During his 18-year baseball career, he pitched for the Oakland Athletics , San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers . He became only the second reliever to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992...
, Gaylord Perry
Gaylord Perry
Gaylord Jackson Perry is a former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He pitched from 1962-1983 for eight different teams in his career. During a 22-year baseball career, Perry compiled 314 wins, 3,534 strikeouts, and a 3.11 earned run average...
, Phil Niekro
Phil Niekro
Philip Henry Niekro , nicknamed "Knucksie" because of his usage and skill level with the knuckleball, is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997....
, and Tom Seaver
Tom Seaver
George Thomas "Tom" Seaver , nicknamed "Tom Terrific" and "The Franchise", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He pitched from 1967-1986 for four different teams in his career, but is noted primarily for his time with the New York Mets...
.
Education
Williams earned his bachelors degree at Wake Forest UniversityWake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
, and his master’s degree at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
. He has a doctorate in Humane Letters from Flagler College
Flagler College
Flagler College, is a private four-year liberal arts college in St. Augustine, Florida, USA and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2008.The college has been named in recent years by US News & World Report as one of the southeast region's best comprehensive liberal arts colleges, and is included on...
.
Awards
He is a member of the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame after catching for the Deacon baseball team, including the 1962 Atlantic Coast ConferenceAtlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
Championship team. He was inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame
Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame
The Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame is a membership-based organization founded in 1976. The organization runs a museum with exhibits at Daniel S...
in 2001. He won the DECA Entrepreneurial Spirit award at DECA's International Career Development Conference in 2011.