When Athletes Show Their True Gangster

Does NBA golden boy Deron Williams play with dead bodies?

You probably don’t think there’s anything remotely gangster about Utah (besides polygamist Mormons forcing young girls to marry and have sex with old men, of course). Well, there is. In his new spot for Nike/Foot Locker’s House of Hoops campaign, Olympic gold medalist and court leader of the Utah Jazz Deron Williams reveals that his childhood hoops court was just a jump-step from a dumping ground for bodies.

In the ad, he says he learned to shoot well at a young age because if he missed, his ball would roll down into a creek where he might run into snakes, rats and insects. Smiling, the West Virginia native concludes, “Could’ve been a couple bodies down there. Who knows!” What?! We’re not sure when Nike, Foot Locker and D-Will decided that joking about finding murder victims is a good way to sell sneakers, but it’s equally gangster and hilarious (and now we kinda wanna buy some ball kicks). After the jump, watch the Williams commercial and check out other unexpectedly gangster athlete moments…

DERON WILLIAMS SEES DEAD PEOPLE?

• See the intro, fool.

IRON MIKE GRABS HIS BALLS OF STEEL

• Considering Mike Tyson had already said he wanted to eat Lennox Lewis’s kids, it was no surprise when a fight broke out during the 2002 announcement of a fight between them. What was startling was Iron Mike’s reaction when an onlooker said he should be put in a straightjacket. Grabbing his junk, Iron Mike got prison gully on the guy and said he’d make him love him the hard (and veiny) way. Low blow!

SNITCHES HAVE CARMELO ANTHONY IN STITCHES

• Unlike the zillion other “Stop Snitching” videos flooding the streets, this one from Baltimore made noise because B-more basketball star Carmelo Anthony appears in it with some old neighborhood friends. Though much was made of his cameo, Melo never advocates violence against witnesses'he just laughs as his boy talks about putting holes in their heads. The NBA'where witness intimidation happens.

WHEN IN JIM ROME’S ASS

• Professional ESPN agitator and douche bag Jim Rome is only famous because people want to punch him in the face. In 1994, he made a name for himself when he pissed off NFL quarterback Jim Everett, questioning his toughness and calling him “Chris” (after the female tennis player Chris Evert). The QB dared Rome to call him Chris again, so of course the prick host did, then Everett knocked a table out of the way and sacked Rome for a loss.

WHITE CHOCOLATE GETS WHITE HOT

• During the 2005 NBA Playoffs, while Phoenix was mopping the court with Memphis, Grizzlies beat reporter Geoff Calkins wrote a piece questioning the team’s desire to win and quoted guard Jason “White Chocolate” Williams, who said, “All this [basketball] shit is secondary to me.” After the Suns swept the Grizzlies, J-Will confronted Calkins in the locker room, snatched his pen twice and, in a memorable display of West Virginia A-B bumpkin logic, proclaimed, “You ain’t writin’ nothin’, homeboy!” He did, however, stop short of stabbing the man in the neck with his pen.