Rumors

Michael Carter-Williams is undefeated in his new athletic venture. The 2013-14 NBA Rookie of the Year was successful Thursday night in his amateur boxing debut, battering Sam Khativ in a three-round heavyweight contest en route to a decision win at Broad Street Brawl in New York.

Yahoo! Sports

Michael Carter-Williams: "So when I retired, I didn’t really have... it wasn’t like, ‘as soon as I retire, I’m going to fight’ kind of thing. It just kind of happened that way. One of my friends—his name is Dan Bunn, we went to college together—told me he was on a charity card. He was like, ‘You should train and do it.’ And I was like, ‘Alright.’ It’s a good outlet for me." "I get in that mode where I’m not thinking about anything—just sport, just reacting, competing. I’m sparring with guys, just having a good time. Sometimes it hurts, but it’s part of the game. It scratches that itch for me." "You know, when I’m watching basketball, I’m like, ‘Dang, I wish I could go out there.’ But it’s hard. I’ve had tons of injuries. I ended my career on two ankle surgeries—reconstructive surgery. So the jumping, the running, the pounding—it’s a lot for me. Even just going out and playing pickup in the offseason is tough." "I wanted to find something that wasn’t so harsh on my knees and ankles, and that was boxing for me."

YouTube

Michael Carter-Williams has traded in jump shots and chest passes for jabs and body blows -- he's a boxer now -- and he tells TMZ Sports he's gunning for a knockout in his first time on the mat later this month!! The ex-NBA star -- the 11th overall pick in the 2013 draft -- has formally made the transition to the fight game since the end of his hooping career ... and his first official match will go down at the Broad Street Brawl on May 29 at the Leman Ballroom in New York.

TMZ.com

Despite his relative newness to the sport, MCW told us his goal is a KO -- explaining, "I know they're going to come in and try and knock me out, so that's what I'm doing!" As for his plans for after, he said he'll be looking for more future bouts -- though he totally ruled out a return to the hardwood.

TMZ.com

Chris Mannix: Former NBA guard Michael Carter-Williams will make his amateur boxing debut on May 29th in New York, per Uprising Promotions. Carter-Williams, the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2014, last played in the NBA in 2023.

Twitter

Former NBA player Michael Carter-Williams is hoping to get a WNBA franchise in Boston whether it’s through expansion or being a destination for a current team that wants to move. He’s part of The Boston Women’s Basketball Partners group that is spearheading the initiative. The group hasn’t submitted a bid to the WNBA although they’ve talked with the company that the league hired to handle the expansion bids process. “The main objective is to get a team in Boston,” Carter-Williams said in a phone interview Thursday. “It doesn’t matter if it’s an expansion team or a team that wants to sell and move to Boston.”

Associated Press

Boston is taking a significant step closer to a WNBA team, as word came Tuesday that an ownership group led by actor/singer Donnie Wahlberg and former NBA player and Hamilton native Michael Carter-Williams is planning to prepare an offer for an expansion team. Mayor Michelle Wu and Governor Maura Healey also have offered support. The WNBA is in an expansion flurry, with teams in San Francisco (Golden State), Portland, and Toronto beginning play in the next two years. Sports Business Journal reported Cleveland will be the league’s 16th team in 2028.

Boston Globe

The Wahlberg/Carter-Williams group, named Boston Women’s Basketball Partners, would have to officially apply for a team and then be approved by the league’s owners, as well as pay an expansion fee. The Portland franchise paid a $125 million expansion free, while Sports Business Journal reported the Cleveland group paid a record $250 million. “As a longtime Boston Celtics fan who attended countless NBA games in my lifetime, nothing would bring me more joy than to have a WNBA franchise in the city of Boston,” Wahlberg said in an email to the Globe. “I look forward to the day I can walk into the Garden, along with thousands of the greatest (and most knowledgeable) basketball fans on the planet, to root for Boston’s hometown WNBA team.”

Boston Globe

That year, there were stories about Dwyane Wade being a bad locker-room guy. What was D-Wade like that year? Michael Carter-Williams: Honestly, D-Wade was in a tough position. Coming from Miami, nearing the end of his career, he was in a new place. I don’t know if he fully knew his role. Having Jimmy and Rondo there complicated things. Sometimes, Wade seemed frustrated. He was injured a lot and spent a lot of time rehabbing, so we didn’t always get reps with him in practice. He’d get frustrated about not getting the ball in the right spots, and we’d feel like we didn’t have enough practice with him to figure it out. Wade was passionate about winning. He wanted to address problems, have conversations, and resolve things. There were moments where he led by sharing his experiences and trying to guide us. At other times, we felt he could’ve been a better leader.

YouTube

Michael Carter-Williams on OJ Mayo: "I remember asking him, ‘What are you doing today?’ He said, ‘We’re in Chicago, I’m going into the city.’ I said, ‘What for?’ He’s like, ‘I’m about to go shoot for some bread.’ So, he comes back with a duffel bag with like $50,000 in it. I’m like, ‘Yo, you won all that just off shots at the gym?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, we were all just in there.’ Then he left the bag on the bus while we were going to practice. That’s OJ. That’s just how he lived."

YouTube

Michael Carter-Williams: The next day, we had another team meeting. Coach Hoiberg was like, "Jimmy, what’s going on, man? What’s going on with me and you?" Jimmy kind of shook his head, and Hoiberg said, "No, tell me." Jimmy looked at him and said, "Well, for one, I think you’re soft." He didn’t even get to two. He didn’t even get to two. Coach was like, "You, Jimmy!" And then Jimmy—you know how he is, real sarcastic—said, "Oh, see? You ask me, and now I’m telling you." That kind of proves his point, though. If you won’t let the man speak, that proves his point. Then Jimmy went on to say how he got a tech, D-Wade got a tech, and Taj got a tech, and he didn’t feel like Coach had their backs. It was just one of those team meetings where everybody kind of got things off their chest.

YouTube

Michael Carter-Williams, who turned 33 Thursday, is retired after playing parts of nine seasons in the NBA, including that Rookie of the Year with the 76ers. He has helped develop an app called NDUR for athletes, which offers mental health tips and resources to student-athletes, providing options to deal with issues such as anxiety, depression, and anger.

Boston Globe

While Carter-Williams was with the Rockets in 2019, his fiancée left him and took their 7-month-old daughter. He was broken and lost, and had reached a low point. “I went through my own mental health issues in my own life and it was something that was a struggle for me,” he told the Globe this past week. “I come from a background of my family that has depression and anxiety, and it affected me later on in my career to the point where I needed to reach out for some help.”

Boston Globe

People other than athletes reached out to Carter-Williams and said they related to his story and experienced the same issues. A week after his fiancée left, Carter-Williams was traded to the Bulls and then immediately released. He admits he was using drugs and alcohol to deaden the pain. “I was really low,” he said. “I didn’t leave my bed for days. Kind of really didn’t know what to do in my life, which direction to go. I was looking for any kind of help I could get. Never been released on a team before and then going through my fiancée and the baby, that was a really, really rough time for me and I knew at that point I am not right mentally. I was using certain things I shouldn’t have been using. I didn’t recognize myself.”

Boston Globe