What Former NBA Player Jay Williams Gave Up in Order to Find Himself

For much of his life, Jay Williams' life revolved around basketball. As a teen, Jay exploded onto the national basketball scene and was considered one of the top prospects in the country. Jay led Duke University to an NCAA championship in 2001 and was named the best college player in the nation. He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, but a motorcycle accident at the end of his rookie season left him injured and unable to play.

Now, Jay explains how he came to understand that he had to give up his need to control everything in order to learn who he really was, especially when it came to the power struggle he felt he was having with his father at the time. "There was a little bit of dissension I had towards my father. And my dad being the CEO of my company while I was playing, and telling me what to do with my money, when to do it with my money, how to invest my money, what I could spend my money on. And all of a sudden, to see that moment flipped to where I'm laying on my back, and I'm being told I don't know if I'm going to be able to walk again, to looking at my father, being like, 'You were exactly right, but I didn't want to listen to you because I wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it to prove that I was running the show.'"

In the video above, Jay explains how he learned that holding too tightly to things actually makes you lose control.

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