Williams: Injury Not in Dive

Free-agent center Brian Williams denied reports that he injured his knee in a skydiving accident.

Williams said he went skydiving once last summer in Sebastian, Fla.

” . . . I jumped once and when I landed I slid on my [rear end] for 20 feet,” Williams said. “I’ve taken worse falls taking a charge from Brent Barry in practice. There was no way I could have even gotten a hangnail out of it.”

Williams, who sat out the final 11 games of last season because of tendinitis in his right knee, said he had a bone spur removed from his knee last September. Doctors also inserted a pin into his knee, which was later removed.

Williams thinks Fred Slaughter, his former agent, leaked reports to New York Post columnist Peter Vescey that he was injured skydiving to sabotage his chances of signing.

“When I told Fred that I was relieving him of his duties, I mentioned to him that he’d done a lot of work for me and I wanted to compensate him for that and you know what his reply to me was? ‘What’s my compensation for the professional embarrassment?’ ” Williams said. “That Peter Vescey article was Fred’s compensation for the professional embarrassment of me relieving Fred of his duties.

“If he had to suffer that, then he figured that I should suffer the same thing, which kind of broke my heart. I always figured we were close friends and secondly he was my lawyer.”

Slaughter failed to return a phone call.

Williams, who failed a Dallas Mavericks’ physical, maintained that his right knee is 15% weaker than his left and that he hopes to play this season.