Carter-Williams silencing skeptics, including his coach

It so happened that Carter-Williams had his own doubts about visiting the 76ers before the draft. "I even fought it for a little bit because I was like, they

Ian Thomsen | Feb 5, 2014

Carter-Williams silencing skeptics, including his coach /

Michael Carter-Williams leads all rookies in points, rebounds and assists after being drafted No. 11 overall. — Michael Carter-Williams leads all rookies in points, rebounds and assists after being drafted No. 11 overall :: Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images

It so happened that Carter-Williams had his own doubts about visiting the 76ers before the draft. "I even fought it for a little bit because I was like, they have Jrue Holiday -- why should I want to work out for them?" he said. "But my agent (Jeff Schwartz) told me I should, so luckily I did. »

Brett Brown (right) wasn't always a believer in Michael Carter-Williams as an NBA player. — Brett Brown (right) wasn't always a believer in Michael Carter-Williams as an NBA player :: Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images

It isn't what Carter-Williams has done so far that matters. It's that he has a chance to do more than most ever imagined, which has made for a more encouraging first step than Brown might have envisioned that night last June in San Antonio.

Published Feb 5, 2014

IAN THOMSEN

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Ian Thomsen, who joined the magazine in 1998, is one of SI's top basketball scribes. Along with writing columns and features for SI, Thomsen is a frequent contributor to SI.com. Before joining SI, Thomsen spent six years in Europe as the sports columnist for the International Herald Tribune, the world's largest international English-language daily. While at the paper Thomsen wrote about an array of sports for a global audience, including the major world and European soccer tournaments, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, Grand Slam tennis events, Grand Prix auto races and, very rarely, cricket. Thomsen, who graduated from Northwestern with a journalism degree in 1983, was a feature writer for The National Sports Daily during its short, expensive run of 1990-91. His first job was with The Boston Globe, where he covered Doug Flutie's Boston College Eagles and all three of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals of the 1980s. Thomsen was a feature writer at SI before taking on the NBA beat fulltime in 2000. With Luis Fernando Llosa and Melissa Segura, Thomsen covered the 2001 scandal of overaged Little League pitcher Danny Almonte and wrote the first SI cover story on Kobe Bryant in 1998. Thomsen lives with his wife and two children near Boston.