Earl Williams

Earl Williams was born in 1951 in Levittown

Earl Williams was born on March 24, 1951, in Levittown, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, with his mother and 8 siblings. He played high school basketball at Woodrow Wilson High School in Levittown.

He played college basketball at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. The Phoenix Suns chose him with the 49th pick of the 1974 NBA draft. Over about 4 NBA seasons he also played for the Detroit Pistons, the New York Nets and the Boston Celtics.

After a season with Alvik in Sweden, he joined Maccabi Tel Aviv for the 1979/80 season. In March 1981 the team won the European Champions Cup, and he scored 19 points in the final. In 1981 he converted to Judaism so he could keep playing as an Israeli, taking the Hebrew name Eliezer Ben Avraham.

He later played in Italy and returned to Israel in 1985/86. He played center for Hapoel Tel Aviv, Hapoel Holon, Maccabi Ramat Gan and Bnei Herzliya, and led the league in rebounds in 1990 and 1991. He retired after the 1994 season.

Williams holds US and Israeli citizenship. He lives in New Jersey with his Israeli wife, Merav, and works as an educator and coach. In 2023 he entered the Bristol Township School District Athletic Hall of Fame.