By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
An uncommon setback was drawn for Panathinaikos forward Derrick Williams.
Williams, 31, spent the night at the airport in Belgrade, after making the trip to the Serbian capital with the Greens ahead of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 2 affair against Crvena Zvezda mts.
The passport check prevented him from exiting the airport. He lost his passport last year on a recent trip to Spain and got a new one. However, the canceled passport was eventually found and sent back to him. He traveled with the wrong document to Belgrade and got stuck at the airport overnight.
The Greens reacted with a team member making the trip from Athens to Belgrade to resolve the matter early today, Thursday, a few hours before the game versus Crvena Zvezda.
Williams was already considered questionable to play due to a quad injury. Teammate Nate Wolters, yet to recover from a hip injury, is ruled out of the game against his former team.
The player himself tweeted about his experience after the game with Panathinaikos getting the win.
Huge win for us tonight in Belgrade ! … great team win .. I’ll give you a run down of my night last night..
We land at 4pm “16:00” and something is wrong with my passport situation .. I was at the airport from then until 6:30am this morning .. off 1 hour of sleep ..— Derrick Williams (@DWXXIII) October 13, 2022
The Arizona product and second pick of the 2011 NBA draft, Williams launched his fifth EuroLeague campaign with 15 points, four rebounds, one assist, and one steal in the opening week loss to Real Madrid.
He played for Maccabi Tel Aviv, Valencia, Fenerbahce Beko, and FC Bayern Munich in the earlier stages of his run in Europe’s premier club continental competition, and made his way to 126 games. In the NBA for seven seasons, he logged 436 games played between the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Sacramento Kings, and Minnesota Timberwolves.