John Williamson (basketball)

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John Lee Williamson (November 10, 1951 – November 30, 1996) was an American basketball player.

Williamson played high school basketball at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, Connecticut and played college basketball at New Mexico State University. He was a 6'2" guard. Williamson was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 6th round (10th pick) of the 1973 NBA draft but had other plans.

As a rookie Williamson landed with the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association as a free agent for the 1973-74 season. Williamson quickly entered the New York starting lineup despite being a rookie. After Williamson became a starter the team's fortunes quickly turned for the better and the team ended up winning the ABA Championship that season. Williamson was named to the 1974 ABA All-Rookie team.

Continuing with the Nets, Williamson had a remarkable performance in Game 6 of the 1976 ABA Finals. He scored 28 points, with 16 of them coming in the fourth quarter, leading the Nets to come back from 22 points behind to win the game, the series and the ABA championship.

Williamson's jersey number (23) was retired^[1] by the New Jersey/New York Nets franchise on December 7, 1990. Only four players who were with the Nets during their ABA days have had their numbers retired by the franchise. The four are Williamson, Wendell Ladner, Bill Melchionni, and Julius Erving.

In 1977 Williamson was traded to the Indiana Pacers in midseason; in the middle of the next season he went back to the Nets. In the 1980 season he went from the Nets to the Washington Bullets where he finished his eight year career during the 1981 season.

In his pro career Williamson scored 9,017 points. He averaged between 11.5 and 29.5 points in every season except for his last.

Williamson still holds Nets team records in various categories.

At the age of 45, Williamson died of kidney failure related to diabetes on November 30, 1996.