Yorick Williams

Yorick Williams
Player information
Full name	Yorick Mortimer Williams
birthday	July 29, 1975
place of birth	Manchester (ENG), United Kingdom
size	192 cm
position	Shooting Guard
Clubs as active
1994–1998 Manchester Giants 1998–1999 Derby Storm 1999–2001 Birmingham Bullets 2001–2002 Aris Thessaloniki 2002–2003 Essex Leopards 2003–2005 Brighton Bears 2005–2006 Birmingham Bullets 2006–2007 Leicester Riders 2007–2011 Milton Keynes Lions 2011–2013 Leicester Riders 2013–2014 Manchester Giants 2014–2015 Leicester Riders
National team 1
200600000	England UK	39 6
Clubs as coaches
Since 02015 Manchester Giants
1 As of July 2012

Yorick Mortimer Williams (born July 29, 1975 in Manchester ) is an English basketball coach and former player. The former England international is in the all-time leaderboard of the British Basketball League (BBL) in the top five for appearances and points.

Career

Williams began his career in 1994 in his hometown with the Giants, who lost the play-off final to defending champions Worthing Bears in their first season in 1994/95 . After missing the play-offs in the 1997/98 season in tenth place on the main round table, Williams switched to the Storm from Derby , which clearly lost the final in the 1999 BBL Trophy League Cup against his former team. The following season he reached the final of the play-offs with the Bullets from Birmingham after a moderate main round somewhat surprisingly, which was again lost to the Manchester Giants. For the 2001/02 season Williams left the Bullets and moved together with his compatriot Steve Bucknall to Aris from Thessaloniki in the Greek league A1 Ethniki . However, they missed entry into the play-offs for the Greek championship in tenth place.

For the 2002/03 season Williams returned to the BBL, where he was active for the formerly very successful Leopards franchise . However, the Leopards had left London and moved to Essex . As Essex Leopards they missed the play-offs again under coach Mike Taylor and withdrew from the BBL at the end of the season. Williams moved to the south coast of England to the Bears from Brighton , who in turn had moved from Worthing in 1999. The Bears were represented internationally under coach Nick Nurse in that season and won four of ten preliminary round games in the ULEB Cup 2003/04 , which was not enough to reach the second round in third place in the preliminary group. In the national championship they moved into the play-offs first in the regular season, but in which they were defeated by one point difference in the semifinals to the Chester Jets , against which they had already lost the final of the 2004 BBL Trophy by two points. The following season they lost the final of the BBL Trophy significantly against the Newcastle Eagles , but won the BBL Cup. After injury problems with several players, even Williams only played 19 games this season, they lost most of the games at the end of the season and were eliminated in the first play-off round.

With the Birmingham Bullets Williams was in the 2005/06 season " top scorer " on points per game of the BBL, but the team finished last in the table after only nine wins in 40 games and, like the Brighton Bears, was then signed off from the BBL's game operations. After Williams had previously tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the final rounds of championships with the English national team, a permanent British national team was established in 2006 after the 2012 Olympic Games were awarded to London, after previously temporarily formed British Olympic teams did not qualify for an Olympic tournament could. Williams was initially considered in autumn 2006 in six international appearances in the British national team in the qualification of the European title fights, in which the British team replaced the English national team. National coach Chris Finch did not use Williams later. After it had been enough with the Riders from Leicester only to a semi-final participation in the BBL Trophy, Williams moved at club level in 2007 to the Lions from Milton Keynes . With the MK Lions he won the BBL Cup in 2008, but lost the final of the play-offs against the Guildford Heat . In the following three seasons the Lions only made one play-off participation.

For the 2011/12 season Williams returned to the Leicester Riders, who lost the play-off final against the dominant Newcastle Eagles this season as runner-up in the main round. But in the following season, with, among others, national team captain Drew Sullivan, apart from the final defeat in the BBL Trophy against the Sheffield Sharks, all titles of the BBL were won, in which the defending champion Newcastle Eagles was won in the final of the BBL Cup and BBL play-offs defeated. For the 2013/14 season, Williams finally returned to his hometown Manchester, where a successor team to the Giants of the same name played in the BBL since 2012. With this team, Williams also took on his first position as responsible coach after he had played again for the Leicester Riders in the 2014/15 season.

Web links

• Great Britain Basketball: The Players - Yorick Williams - Player profile on the website of the British Association ( english )
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Yorick Mortimer WILLIAMS (ENG) - Overview of participation in competitions of FIBA (English)
• WILLIAMS, YORICK - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB (English)
• Fact File: Yorick Williams - Profile on the Britball.com archive pages (Author: Mark Woods, English, 2003)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ without the 2012/13 season: Games Played. British Basketball League , accessed July 2, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Points. British Basketball League , accessed July 2, 2013 . 
3. ↑ Historical Stats: 2004-05 BBL Stats. (PDF (32 KB)) (No longer available online.) British Basketball League , January 4, 2013, archived from the original on July 28, 2014 ; accessed on July 4, 2013 (English, seasonal statistics). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ BBL Championship & Playoffs. British Basketball League , accessed July 4, 2013 (English, season summary with statistical best performances).