Nets' Deron Williams: 'I don't really feel so much like a New Yorker'

Deron Williams isn't the most popular man in New York City right now, and it has nothing to do with his declining performance or bloated contract.

The Brooklyn Nets point guard stirred up a modicum of controversy when he told Resident Magazine that he doesn't "really feel like a New Yorker."

Williams didn't just stop there. He also gripped about New York's schools, traffic and overpopulation.

I grew up in an apartment in Texas where you could send your kids outside like, ‘yeah, go play in the sun.’ Here it’s more challenging. 

The process of getting them into school [in New York] is a nightmare. Even private schools where you pay are an ordeal. In Utah, you just send your kids to the first public school in the area because they’re all great. 

Truth is, we enjoy getting away from the hustle and bustle and going back to Utah every summer. It’s a relief to take that timeout. No traffic. No crowds. My daughters still have their friends there. There’s a big backyard. They go to the pool; the playground and they jump on the trampoline. Kids running wild and free here…? I don’t think so.

But Williams didn't mean any disrespect with his statement. Williams told the New York Daily News. “I love New York but I also love my time in Utah,” Williams said.

The 30-year-old Williams is owed in excess of $60 million over the next three seasons, and given that he posted near career-lows in an injury-plagued campaign last season, it's a fair bet that Williams will be stuck in the Big Apple for a while longer.