Anthony Davis is the latest NBA player to send his condolences to the Williams family in the wake of tragedy.
Ingrid Williams, the wife of Oklahoma City Thunder assistant coach Monty Williams, died after a driver reportedly traveling 92 mph in a 40-mph zone crashed into her vehicle head-on.
The New Orleans Pelicans star, who played under Williams for the first three seasons of his professional career, wrote in a tribute posted on The Cycle that he is heartbroken because the Williamses had become a second family to him:
You can't choose family. Those are the people that God puts around you, to help you and to guide you. That's why family means everything to me; family can't be replaced. And so I'm heartbroken right now because Monty and Ingrid Williams are like a second family to me.
He continued:
That's why I was blessed, really blessed, to have Monty Williams as my coach. The type of person he is, he cared about me and every member of our team more as human beings than as basketball players. And Ingrid was the same way. They opened their hearts to me. They really became like another set of parents. Anything I needed, if I needed to talk, whatever, they were there. I can't tell you what that meant to me.
I keep thinking about how, before every home game, as soon as Monty came out on the floor, he would look up in the stands to where Ingrid and the kids were sitting and finding them there, he'd smile and wave to them. Before every single game. My prayers and my heart are with the Williams family. Because they are like my second family.
Monty gave an inspiring eulogy for his late wife and mother of the couple's five children at the funeral attended by many NBA players and coaches.
