There’s something unmistakable about firsts in professional sports. It’s a player’s core memory of ‘finally I made it.’ For some players, these moments are memorable, while for others, they can be nightmares they wish to forget. For Lou Williams, it wasn’t the lights, the media, or the surreal rush of putting on an NBA jersey; it was something more defining than that.

Williams, who has been named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year three times, had a reality check that came from trying to finish at the rim over a 7’6 big wall. Known for his passion and wit in the world of basketball, Williams did something unforgettably big that feels as fresh as yesterday. His first core memory of his rookie year involved one and only Yao Ming.

Nearly two decades have passed, but the moment hasn’t faded, “What’s your favorite memory from your rookie year?” Williams was asked in a recent video posted by Run It Back. “It’s probably gonna be my first two points, which was a reverse layup against Yao Ming. I remember that shit like it was yesterday.” For a teenager drafted straight out of high school, scoring over one of the most dominant global figures in the NBA wasn’t just a milestone, but it was an awakening.

Williams, who retired in 2023 after a 17-year NBA career, revisited his rookie season in that post. “I was 18 years old in this picture,” he said, pointing to an old image from the 2005 Rookie Symposium. “I was, uh, NBA pro, and I couldn’t believe it… my jersey was four times the size of my body. That was what was going on at that time.” The clip blended humor and honesty. From baggy jerseys to copying the headband of a special legend.

Playing 30 games with the Philadelphia 76ers, mostly behind the headband inspiration, Allen Iverson. Williams’ start wasn’t that easy; he struggled to get minutes, but those small minutes laid the foundation. Lou Williams, now the NBA’s all-time leading bench scorer with 13,396 points, used the early adversity as fuel. That first layup, against a Hall of Famer nearly two feet taller, displayed that the young Williams was never afraid of the challenge.

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Years after that reverse layup, Williams found himself in a far different locker room and it was alongside the legend Kobe Bryant during his Black Mamba’s farewell tour in 2015-16. It wasn’t about making a name this time; it was about taking in a heritage that was already in motion as in sports and life every start has its end.

“Two-four started that season as Kobe Bryant,” Williams said of Bryant’s mentality in training camp. “He was pushing everybody. He was getting his body ready, he was getting his mind ready. He was making sure we all were on the same page.” That intensity, Williams recalled, was the OG Kobe, who was always seen demanding excellence from himself and everyone around him.

But even legends meet limits. Just weeks into the season, the tone and situation changed. “His body started breaking down,” Williams noted. “And he came to the realization that this was the end.” Kobe’s mindset shifted. He became calmer and accepted the closing chapter of his professional basketball. “He became a lot more lighthearted… more easygoing,” Williams added. “And I knew at that point he had kinda took his foot off the gas.”

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Still, the Mamba had one last masterpiece left in him. Bryant put 60 points on the Utah Jazz in his last game—a spectacular farewell for a player whose career was based on endurance and elegance. Williams felt that seeing that journey shape his career more than any other event in his life.

Now retired, Lou Williams measures his career by the memories he has created along the way. Just like the moment he scored over Yao, by the fire he saw in Kobe’s last chapter as a player, and by those snapshots shaped his legacy as the NBA’s ultimate sixth man.