Boston Celtics middle Robert Williams, AKA “Time Lord,” has turn into one of many NBA’s higher defensive biggies over his first 5 seasons. However, many are nonetheless unfamiliar with why he has passed by the nickname Time Lord since his rookie season. Here, we check out the origins of the fan-favorite nickname.
After being drafted No. 27 by Boston within the 2018 NBA draft, Williams was scheduled for his introductory convention name with reporters. However, Williams overslept and missed the decision in addition to his flight to Boston. It in all probability wasn’t the begin to his NBA profession that he envisioned, however fortunately for the massive man, Celtics followers didn’t take it personally.
Instead, a die-hard Celtics fan named Ryan Hebert made essentially the most of Williams’ mishap by developing with a nickname for him – The Time Lord. The moniker then shortly caught on, beginning with Celtics’ Twitter after which into the mainstream media as nicely.
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During an interview with Mass Live in 2018, Hebert broke down why he selected the nickname. He stated that he had been scouting Williams as a possible Celtics draft prospect for 2 years and all the time knew he was going to be a Celtic finally. So Hebert joked that Williams wasn’t really late for his press convention however that he was as a substitute working on “a unique timeline.”
“So (we) began joking that he wasn’t late, he was working on a unique timeline concurrent to the one we’re in, as evidenced by the truth that I knew he was a Celtic two years earlier than he was a Celtic,” Hebert stated.
“And we might do it with individuals taking themselves actually significantly they usually’d get very mad at us for pondering they have been too uptight. So, from there he turned a Time Lord, just like the characters in Doctor Who whose time journey can tie collectively horrible holes within the plot of a shoddy script.”
Hebert then did his greatest to simplify his rationalization of the nickname for individuals who have been nonetheless confused:
“Basically, Time Lord boiled all the way down to the prediction of drafting him in 2018 and likewise defending him towards uptight individuals who have been earnestly performing like they’ve by no means been late to work of their lives,” Hebert stated.
Hebert added that he and the remainder of Celtics Twitter have been rooting for Williams to achieve success:
“Weird Celtics Twitter is a weird place, however we genuinely love the characters and personalities and folks on the crew,” Hebert stated.
“We are on-line a lot that we now have to do absurd issues to indicate individuals how silly it’s to say a mega-athlete with a savant-like really feel for timing, blocks and passing is a bust as a result of they missed a flight. We all love Robert and are pulling for him as a professional and as an individual and that is our weird means of going about it.”
Robert Williams on his Time Lord nickname
Upon his Time Lord nickname catching on early in his rookie season, Robert Williams was very confused as to why everybody was calling him that:
“Instead of calling me ‘Robert,’ they name me ‘Time Lord.’ But I do not know the place that sh*t got here from,” Williams stated.
However, the nickname has since grown on Williams as he now finds it becoming for his time-stopping blocked photographs:
“So once I obtained drafted, I missed a press convention over the telephone,” Williams informed Sky Sports.
“And they begin calling me Time Lord, like being late. But I obtained on the court docket enjoying and it was saying like, ‘Oh, he’s stopping time to go over there and block photographs.’ So, I can’t hate on that, it was first rate. I favored it. I’ve been rocking with Time Lord ever since.”