Micheal Williams

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For people named Michael Williams, see Michael Williams (disambiguation).

Micheal Douglas Williams (born July 23, 1966 in Dallas, Texas) is a retired American professional basketball player at the point guard position in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Out of Baylor University, he was selected with the 48th overall pick in the 1988 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons with whom he played 49 games in his rookie season, averaging 2.4 points and 1.4 assists per game. The Pistons earned the NBA championship in his rookie year.

He was traded to the Phoenix Suns on draft day along with the Pistons' 1st round draft pick (27th overall) of the 1989 NBA Draft, Kenny Battle, to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for the Suns' first round draft choice (24th overall pick), Anthony Cook.

The following season was spent split between the Phoenix Suns and the Charlotte Hornets averaging 5.6 points and 2.9 assists per game before being acquired by the Indiana Pacers in 1990. He thrived during his two seasons in Indiana, averaging 13.2 points, 6.5 assists and shooting 87.5% from the free throw line. Prior to the 1992-93 season he was traded along with Chuck Person to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Sam Mitchell and Pooh Richardson. He continued his solid play in Minnesota for the following two seasons, however, due to various injuries, in his final four years with the Wolves he participated in just 35 games (including missing the entire 1996-97 season). On January 21, 1999 Minnesota traded him, along with Zeljko Rebraca, to the Toronto Raptors in a three-team deal. By then, Williams' career was on the decline, and he only played two games for the Raptors before retiring that year.

At the conclusion of the 1992-93 regular season, Williams ranked fourth in the league in free throw accuracy at 90.7 percent, due in large part to him making his final 84 attempts. In the process, he broke Calvin Murphy's record of 78 successive free throws set in 1981. Williams continued his streak into the following season (1993-94), making his first 13 attempts. As of 2007, he still holds the NBA record for consecutive free throws made during the regular season at 97 (spanning 19 regular season games from March 24 to November 9, 1993).^[1]