Mo Williams Continues His Tweeting Ways

The last 2 offseasons have not been kind to one Mo Williams. Two years ago, the Cavaliers were coming off a stunning loss to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals. Mo Williams took a lot of heat from fans and critics in the press alike for his comments before the series and his inability to back his words up with his play. Then this offseason Mo has had to watch as the Championship caliber organization he helped build came crumbling down all around him.

LeBron James? Gone. Mike Brown? Gone. Danny Ferry? Gone. Lance Blanks? Gone. Zydrunas Ilgauskas? Gone. Delonte West? Gone. Melvin Hunt and Mike Malone? Gone. Left behind, standing in the rubble was Mo Williams. For a guy who so often allows his emotions to shine through and who loves to wear his heart on his sleeve for all to see, it became too much.

Scott touched on it earlier this week, but Mo Williams apparently told Yahoo’s Marc Spears that he had briefly considered walking away from the game he supposedly loves so much. This came much to the humorous delight of the likes of Chris Douglas-Roberts and many other fine folks on Twitter nation.

But is there more to this story than just what’s on the surface? We know Mo Williams isn’t afraid to speak openly about his feelings and emotions, so his comments to Spears really didn’t surprise me. It’s also why I never took any offense to Mo’s comments about the Magic heading into that infamous ECF matchup. I know Mo doesn’t mean anything malignant by his words, he’s just a self-confident individual who expresses himself.

This is why I also figured we were going to see further explanation on this subject from Mo himself. Once he began to be publicly ridiculed for his words, I figured Mo would address his comments. In fact, on September 21, the day after Spears’ article, Mo tweeted the following:

This has been the worst time of my life. Dealing with family issues and everything with the team has been very hard. The family issues are more important and the team issues just compounded the problems. We have a good life without a doubt, but we do go thru s— too. Keep me in your prayers and keep the love and motivation coming. Peace, going to bed. Sleep this off

I realize everyone reacts differently to males, particularly professional athletes, expressing their feelings so openly, but I found it hard after reading that not to have sympathy for Mo and what he must be going through. Say what you will about Mo’s performance in big games in the postseason, but it’s never for a lack of effort. He has given 100% of himself to the city of Cleveland, the Cavaliers franchise, and to the fans.

However, yesterday Mo seemed to backtrack a little bit from his statement to Marc Spears. Again taking to his Twitter account, Mo said:

Just need to put this out there to all my fans about the yahoo story about me retiring, sense it’s getting a little out of hand. I was misquoted or misunderstood however u want to put it. I will clear everything up Monday on media day. I was never considering walking away rt now. And especially because lbj left. It made a good story though. Though u know I will never walk away prematurely before my contract is up. That absorb.

Mo will have to forgive me if I’m not sure what exactly he means by “That absorb”, but the rest of his statement is pretty clear. He seems to be saying Spears didn’t properly relate the context Mo was speaking in.

I’m not really sure what to believe here, but I’m not even sure it really matters. If I had to guess, I’d say Mo probably did get a little carried away with his emotions when talking to Spears, and then when he began to face some backlash, he tried to imply that Spears overstated the degree to which Mo ever actually considered retiring. As with most things in life, the truth is probably hidden somewhere in the middle.

What I do care about, though, is 2 things. First, I care about Mo Williams’ well being as a human being. I don’t need my professional athletes to always succeed on the court in order for me to be a fan of them off it. As a guy drafted with the 18th pick of the 2nd round, Mo Williams was never supposed to be a starter in the NBA, let alone a borderline All-Star playing on the league’s best team hand in hand with the league’s best player. As I said, though, Mo has always given maximum effort and he has also maximized his talents and represented the franchise as best he could. Beyond all that, though, I just want Mo to be happy, and I hope he can find his escape by getting back on the basketball court.

Secondly, I care about the success of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball franchise. In a perfect world, I’d love nothing more than Mo Williams to be a key part of the resurrection of the franchise. However, if he is going to let his lament get to him, I fear that he is going to end up having a miserable season and will miss out on an opportunity to stake his claim as a new leader for this franchise.

This has certainly been the most bizarre summer I have ever witnessed, and the Mo Williams story has been a major component of it. I doubt Marc Spears would misquote Mo, as he claims, as Spears does an outstanding job covering the league and is highly respected. It’s possible he misunderstood the context and/or sincerity of Mo’s words underneath the weight of his emotions, but who can really tell? The important thing to note, though, is that as much as people are enjoying kicking Mo while he’s down and mocking him for considering to retirement, the truth is that actions speak louder than words. Mo didn’t actually walk away from this team, and while LeBron James has turned his back on this city and its team, it’s Mo Williams who is still here.

Hopefully training camp is what the doctor ordered for Mo and he uses it to put this team on his back, from a leadership standpoint, and can rally the city of Cleveland behind him and his teammates. Admitting you almost quit isn’t the way to do it, but playing quality basketball is. If the Cavaliers are going to having any chance at being a good basketball team, they will almost certainly need Mo to have a big season and be a major part of the team.