Aja Williams literally has a world of possibilities open to her as she transitions from the CSUB women’s basketball team to the pros.
She just learned of an opportunity to play pro ball and get her master’s degree in England. Her agent has sent her game film to Portugal, Puerto Rico and somewhere in Africa.
And Williams still has a chance to shine in person before U.S. and foreign scouts at a “pro combine” in Las Vegas this summer.
Adding to the anything-can-happen nature of going pro, getting picked up by a team doesn’t ensure a long-term career there.
“When you sign, you’re automatically going (to a team),” Williams, 22, said. “But there’s no guarantee how long you’re going. It depends on your play.”
Williams’ play this past year was exceptional. She was the leading scorer off the bench (she usually entered games toward the end of the first quarter or early in the second) and was second in rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.
The lady Roadrunners had a great season, falling just one game short of its first Division 1 regular conference championship and making it to the Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship game.
They lost the tournament title game by three points, but Williams focuses on the positive.
“Even though we lost, we had a strong bond and we’re still like family,” she said.
Williams, who graduated with a degree in liberal studies, has been playing basketball since age 3. She caught the bug watching her uncles and dad play in her hometown of Jackson, Miss.
“I picked up the basketball and never put it down,” she said.
Williams played basketball only with boys growing up, which she thinks improved her game, and then joined her junior high and high school squads. She immediately made a name for herself at Provine High School by scoring 18 points in her first game without having started. Her senior year she was named one of the “Dandy Dozen,” meaning one of the 12 best players in Mississippi.
From there she went to Holmes Community College for two years and was inducted into its Hall of Fame. Next came CSUB; she liked the feel of the school when she first visited it her senior year in high school.
“The thing that stood out to me was this school is all about family,” Williams said. “They weren’t just worried about me playing basketball, they were worried about me getting my degree, too.”
Williams admits to hitting some rough patches at CSUB.
Her first impressions of the facilities weren’t great. During her junior year she averaged just 11 points, the worst performance of her career.
And at times she clashed with her coaches. She sometimes came off as aggressive; she sometimes thought they were too sensitive. But they worked all that out, Williams said.
“We are like a family and that helped me because I’m so far away from home,” she said. “Since I stepped off the plane, they have taken care of me.”
To get in front of professional scouts and agents, Williams attended a pro combine in Ohio earlier this year. At pro combines, athletes play games on assigned teams to show off their skills.
Hers was hosted by some of the first players drafted by the WNBA.
“That was a pretty cool experience because they were the same women I’d been looking up to my whole life,” Williams said.
Then an agent emailed CSUB women’s basketball Head Coach Greg McCall about Williams and the two women started talking. Williams signed with her.
While she waits for word of professional opportunities, Williams is coaching kindergartners through eighth-graders in a Bakersfield basketball league.
American women basketball players usually aspire to the WNBA, but they can make more money playing in foreign countries, Williams said. One of the things she’d like to do with those earnings is support basketball programs for high school and lower-income kids in Jackson. Her dad has a traveling team that plays in front of college coaches, which is how CSUB first saw her.
“I want to start with them because they’re from my home state, home city, and a lot of them look up to me,” Williams said.
She’d also like to start a clothing line promoting positivity in Mississippi. She’d market it on social media and the platforms of her stepmother, Diana Williams, star of the Lifetime dance reality show Bring It.
A business career is her Plan B for if and when her basketball career ends.
“I can’t play basketball my whole life,” she said with a smile.