EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Deron Williams sat down with the media Tuesday at the Nets free agent mini-camp to say that he doesn’t know where he will end up next year, but hopes to have an idea by July 1.
“I want to reiterate, I don’t know what I’m doing next year,” the 27-year-old point guard said. “Still, nobody does but me. Not even my mom, my brother, my uncle, my cousin—I haven’t talked to anybody about where I’m going next year.”
A three-time NBA All-Star, Williams is expected to opt out of his contract with the Nets by 12:01 a.m. July 1 and become an unrestricted free agent.
Williams has a player option worth $17.7 million for the upcoming season.
The Nets can offer Williams a five-year, $109 million max contract if he opts out, about a year and $28 million more than any other team.
He said he plans to visit his hometown of Dallas later this week but that no one should read into that that he will wind up with the Mavericks.
“I’m going to Dallas Thursday,” he said. “I’m from there. My mom lives there, my brother lives there, my aunt and uncles live there. I’m going there to have my son’s birthday party. I’m going Thursday to Tuesday.”
He added: “I just hate that people think they know where I’m going because I don’t know where I’m going, so there’s no way for them to know. Assuming I’m going to Dallas or I’m staying here — because I don’t know. There could be another team that comes into the picture.”
Williams, who has an apartment in SoHo, also said he does not own a house in Dallas.
“I’m here right now because I sold my house in San Diego, so I can’t go there,” he said. “I have a house in Utah that I’m trying to sell, but it has no furniture, so I can’t go there. Plus, my kids are in school until June 28th, so I have to sit here, and then I leave on July 5th for the Olympic training. So it doesn’t really make sense for me to go anywhere. I do not have a house in Dallas, so I wouldn’t go there.”
Williams also visited Russia recently and reportedly had a casual conversation there with Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov but said no one should read into that, either.
“I’ve heard comments that people make, like he’s going to Dallas,” he said. “Then people say I’m staying here for sure because, you know, I went to Russia. Yeah, I went Russia. I’ve never been to Russia. AK [Andrei Kirilenko] has been telling me to come to Russia for the last six years. It was close to Turkey, I went to Turkey because I love Turkey and I played there for three months. I wanted to see my teammates. I wanted to check out some games, so I went to Istanbul.”
He also denied a report that his younger brother, Kendall, would attend prep school to play basketball in New Jersey.
“My brother is not attending school in New Jersey next year,” he said.
Williams has previously said he wants to have a contract done by the Olympics.
Training camp for the U.S. team begins July 6 in Las Vegas, and the team will begin training in England on July 17.
“July 1st hopefully I know something,” he said.
He said he plans to speak with his agent, Jeff Schwartz, today to discuss some options.
“I’ll have a good idea,” he said. “My agent, he’s done this before. We’re going to talk, actually today, about some scenarios.”
