After a playoff elimination at the hands of the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets, Monty Williams would be fired by the Phoenix Suns front office. That wasn’t even close to the bad news he would get this year.
New Pistons head coach Monty Williams opened up about dealing with a personal matter while coaching the Phoenix Suns at his introductory press conference Tuesday.
Williams said his wife, Lisa, was diagnosed with breast cancer during the NBA playoffs.
“The reason that I bring it up is to not to talk about my family, but to make it more of an emphasis that women need early detection and testing,” he said. “We had genetic testing done and then scan after scan after scan and then we found it early and that may have saved my wife’s life and it can save others.”
Williams only took the Detroit Pistons’ job after they received good news on Lisa’s health.
Prayers to him came from everywhere on social media:
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Williams knows all about losing somebody already as he lost his first wife, Ingrid, to a car accident in February 2016. Williams had just agreed to a multiyear contract extension with Phoenix in July 2022 before being let go within a year after that.
The Suns fired Williams after losing Game 6 of the West semifinals to the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets by 25 points in Phoenix under new team owner Mat Ishbia.
Detroit hired the 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year, making him the highest-paid head coach in NBA history with a six-year, $78.5-million deal.
