WASHINGTON —Da’Monte Williams couldn’t avoid it. Not growing up in a basketball community as pride- and tradition-rich as Peoria.
Not with that last name.
Not with his dad, Frank Williams, dazzling at Assembly Hall between three state championships at Manual and a three-year NBA career mostly spent with the New York Knicks.
He still hears it now.
A Williams?
Playing for Manual?
Frank’s kid, right?
“That was like an every day thing,” said Taneja Branscumb, Da’Monte’s mom. “At one point in time, he used to be mad because everybody used to call him ‘Little Frankie.