Remembering “Super John” Williamson: 1951-1996

Photo: New Jersey Nets’ guard “Super John” Williamson goes up for a left-handed layup in a game against the Washington Bullets in 1978. Photo credit: Focus on Sport, Getty Images

Cover photo: John Williamson over the New York Nets drives the ball in an ABA game against the Spririts of St. Louis. Photo credit: Getty Images.

Birthed in 1967 as the New Jersey Americans playing out of the Teaneck Armory, and then as the New York Nets playing out of the Nassau Coliseum before going across the Hudson to East Rutherford as the New Jersey Nets and then back across to Brooklyn where they now reside, the Net franchise will forever be the little brother, a la the Mets to the Yankees or the Jets to the Giants, to the New York Knicks. That is just what the circumstances dictate. 

While they do not possess as rich of a history as their in-city rival Knicks, the Nets have had their own collection of all-time greats. Julius Erving and Rick Barry (prior to Erving’s arrival, Barry averaged 29.4 points and 31.5 points in his two seasons as a Net) come to mind. Buck Williams, Drazen Petrovic, and Jason Kidd. Brief brilliance of Bernard King and the late Michael Ray Richardson. Also steeped in the history of the Nets is one that may not leap to the forefront when talking of all-time New York or New Jersey pro ballplayers. 

But he was one of their best. 

John Williamson, who died in 1996 at the tender age of 45 due to kidney disease, is not around to tell his story. It is up to others to tell his story for him.

Before his days as a supreme scorer in the ABA and NBA with the New York Nets, Indiana Pacers, and New Jersey Nets, “Super John” or simply “Supe” to those close with him, was a 6 foot, 2 inch guard at New Haven, Conn.’s Wilbur Cross High School. Williamson, whose sturdy, strong frame would reach 185 pounds in muscle, averaged 38.7 points in his senior season at Wilbur. 

The prep juggernaut at the time was John Thompson’s St. Anthony Roman Catholic, a D.C. team that had headed east for games against St. Thomas More (Oakdale, Conn.) and Wilbur Cross. In front of 2,000 fans at the now named Robert H. Saulsbury Gym, Williamson’s Wilbur and Thompson’s St. Anthony dueled.  

Behind Williamson and teammate Dan Hardy (who scored 20 points in the game), the Governors held a 66-64 lead in a controversial fourth quarter that saw Thompson’s team leave the floor in protest of a called technical foul after one of Thompson’s players threw the ball at referee Edward White. Thompson’s gripe was that the ball was not meant to hit the official in the face. The coach was hit with three technicals, and Williamson went for the line for what was to be eight free-throw attempts. That was when Thompson’s team left the floor, Williamson unable to complete the copious amount of free offerings. Williamson finished with 37 points, and Wilbur won the game 74-66. 

Williamson then carried his established penchant for scoring to New Mexico State, where he averaged 27.1 points per game (1st in the NCAA) in 1971-72. As a junior, in 1972-73, he averaged 27.2 points per game. While at New Mexico, Williamson and teammate Roland “Tree” Grant were put on probation because a booster had paid them to work at his bank during the Christmas break. The minor infraction led Williamson to leave school and subsequently try out for the Nets. 

Taken in the sixth round (96th overall) in the 1973 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks, Williamson played his first three professional seasons in the ABA, prior to the 1976 merger. 

Williamson made the Nets’ roster, and averaged 14.5 points per game as a rookie (49.1% shooting on 12.8 attempts per contest) in 1973-74, and finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting. The Nets went 55-29, including a 19-3 mark when head coach Kevin Loughery inserted Williamson as a starter. Led by league MVP Julius Erving (27.4 points per game), Billy Paultz, and Larry Kenon in addition to the rookie Williamson, the Nets defeated the Utah Stars in five games in the ‘74 Finals. That team still stands as the youngest to win a professional basketball championship - the 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers are the youngest NBA club to do so, followed by the 2024-25 Oklahoma City Thunder. The Net starting five, rounded out by Brian Taylor, was indeed puppy-young. Kenon was 21, Williamson and Taylor were 22, Erving was 24, and Paultz was 25. 

In his second season, Williamson’s shot attempts decreased to 10.2 before they increased to 15.2 in his third campaign. In that third season, he made 45.0% of his attempts in 29.7 minutes (76 games), for an average of 16.2 points per game. The Nets won 55 games led by Erving once again and defeated the Denver Nuggets in six games in the ABA Finals. David Thompson, Dan Issel, and Bobby Jones, and Ralph Simpson formed a formidable foursome of altitude and attitude for the Nuggets. In the clinching Game 6, Williamson, having scored just 6 points in the opening half, erupted for 16 in the fourth quarter and finished the game with 28 points on 12-of-20 from the field. Erving, who finished with 31 points and 19 rebounds, went scoreless in the fourth. Williamson was the key to the 112-106 victory, a game in which they battled back from 20 points down. 

That game ended up being the last showcase of the ABA, as the merger with the NBA brought in the Nets, Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and the San Antonio Spurs. While all teams had to pay a fee to enter the league, the Nets were required to pay extra due to the franchise joining the same territory as the Knicks. As a result, the Nets did not have the funds to re-sign Erving, who then had his contract purchased by the Philadelphia 76ers for $6 million. 

“That was the unhappiest I’d ever seen Supe,” Williamson's longtime friend Ray LeBov tells me. “They were going to be a contender for the NBA title with that ABA title team and now they had nothing left.” 

Williamson split the 1976-77 season between the Nets (42 games) and Indiana Pacers (30 games). On an expiring contract, Williamson did not fit in the Net budget, hence the trade to the Pacers. 

That season, he averaged 20.8 points on 45.9% shooting (18.7 attempts) in 34.5 minutes per game. 

In 1977-78, Williamson averaged a career-high 23.7 points (43.8% shooting) in 36.4 minutes per game in 75 games, 38 starts. He averaged 19.1 points per game (42.1% shooting) in 34.5 minutes per game (42 games) with the Pacers, and in 33 games back with the Nets shot 45.4% on a career-high 25.9 attempts per night for an average of 29.5 points per game. This scoring run included twenty-six games of 30 or more points, and seven games of 40 or more points. Two of his explosive scoring nights happened when he was still a Pacer. 

On Nov. 23, 1977 in a 126-116 Pacer win against the Golden State Warriors, Williamson, in 44 minutes, shot 18-of-34 from the field for 43 points. On Jan. 17, 1978 in a 105-104 Pacer loss to the Chicago Bulls, he made 18-of-28 attempts in 39 minutes for 41 points. He then scored, as a Net: 

43 points (18-of-33 in 48 minutes) against the New York Knicks on Feb. 12

40 points (14-of-40 in 46 minutes) against the Buffalo Braves on March 4. The 40 field-goal attempts set a franchise record. 

42 points (18-of-34 in 39 minutes) against the Denver Nuggets on March 17

40 points (15-of-35 in 44 minutes) against the Atlanta Hawks on April 2 

These outings preceded a 50-point outburst (19-of-32, 12-of-13 from the line, in 44 minutes) on April 4 in a 129-121 win against the Pacers.

Prior to the game, Williamson’s question to Pacer publicity director Lee Daniel was if anyone had ever scored 50 points at Market Square Arena. No one had, until later that night when Williamson accomplished the feat. An unsavory relationship with his Pacer head coach Slick Leonard provided motivation for the 50-piece. 

For the 1978-79 season, Williamson averaged over 20 points per game (22.2 on 46.5% from the field) for the final time in his career. He played in 74 games, 33.1 minutes per game, and shot 18.5 attempts per contest. Williamson averaged 14.6 points in the 1979-80 season over 58 games (28 with the Nets and 30 with the Washington Bullets). He played just nine games with the Bullets in his final season of 1980-81.

Williamson played an average of 30.1 minutes per game in his professional career and averaged 17.5 points per game on 45.8% shooting (15.8 attempts), with his best years coming as a member of the Nets. He scored 9,017 career points, and was also a capable free-throw shooter throughout his career, making 82.6% of his attempts. 

In his five NBA seasons, Williamson registered 20.1 points per game on 44.9% shooting (18.2 attempts). He scored over 30 points in a playoff game twice, the first coming in Game 4 of the 1976 ABA Semifinal against the San Antonio Spurs, when he made 14-of-26 shots for 31 points. The second such occasion came on April 11, 1979, when against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of their first round series he shot 14-of-28 and made 10-of-12 free-throws for 38 points in 46 minutes. Those 38 playoff points stood as a Net franchise record until 1992, when sniper Drazen Petrovic poured in 40 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of their first round playoff series. On Dec. 9, 1978 in a game against the San Diego Clippers, Williamson, in scoring 48 points in a 125-120 Net win, made 22-of-24 free-throws, which set a franchise record for free-throw makes in a game. Williamson also set the Nets’ postseason record for attempts in a game in Game 2 of the 1979 first round against the 76ers. He attempted 34 shots in the game, which was the final playoff game of his career. Williamson is a member of both the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame and New Mexico State Athletics Hall of Fame, inducted in 1974. 

To the Los Angeles Times in 1987, Williamson said: 

"To be super, means you never get hurt, it means that you're very strong, that you're very physical. It meant having to prove myself. People really thought that I thought I was better than them and had a super ego, but there was no way I was thinking like that.”

Williamson valiantly fought kidney disease for eight years, and succumbed on Nov. 30, 1996. 

Said Lou Carnesseca, Nets’ head coach from 1970-73, upon Williamson’s passing: 

“You couldn’t stop him. He was so strong and had such great tenacity. He was small, but he could score on practically anyone.''

Williamson’s No. 23, retired by the Nets on Dec. 7, 1990, is one of seven retired jerseys in the history of the Nets’ franchise. Along with Julius Erving and Bill Melchionni, Williamson is one of three ABA-era Nets to have their jerseys retired by the franchise. Wendell Ladner, a former Net forward who passed away in a plane crash in 1975, had his No. 4 jersey posthumously retired and unworn until 1992. The other retired Nets’ jerseys are Petrovic’s No. 3, Jason Kidd’s No. 5, Vince Carter’s No. 15, and Buck Williams’ No. 52. 

Williamson was a smaller player whose compact build made him one of the most electric players in what was an electric league. 

“He was quite amazing,” opines LeBov in succinctly summing up his friend. 

In 2013, I was talking with the former Net Richardson about the franchise’s retired numbers. “Super John Williamson. Unbelievable scorer,” Michael Ray said to me. 

A firm place in ABA and Nets’ history for the greatness of one “Super John”.