Bear Digest

Caleb Williams About to Try His Hand on Another Sport's Major Stage

The Iceman cometh to the NBA when this weekend's All-Star Game weekend festivities begin.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams and Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong attten a Bulls game.
Caleb Williams and Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong attten a Bulls game. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The odds will be stacked against the Iceman. It's the way he seems to like it.

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams normally is hunting 6s but it will be 3s this weekend when he is among the participants in the annual NBA All-Star Celebrity 3-point shooting contest.

It seems like a bit of a rigged contest as it will include Jared McCain, who has made 37.9% from 3-point range this season and was just traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Williams wasn't a high school basketball player so he's not exactly expected to be a challenger in this, but considering the competition perhaps he'll be right up there with McCain.

Besides McCain, he will be competing against Richard Jefferson, the former NBA player and now an analyst, as well as BMX athlete Nigel Sylvester, Druski, Jake from State Farm, PlaqueBoyMax and Cam Wilder. Druski is a comedian, PlaqueBoyMax is a rapper/social media influencer and Wilder a basketball influencer/content creator.

And Jake, well, he had to be in the field. State Farm sponsors the contest, which will be Saturday at the Intuit Dome in Iglewood, Calif.

Williams has put on display some of his other athletic skills over the course of the past two years since coming to Chicago. He was in the batting cage at Wrigley Field and has been caught on video whacking a few T-shots at a driving range.

Williams, at least, is a follower of the NBA. He can regularly be seen in the offseason courtside at Bulls games.

Perhaps this is the sort of thing Ben Johnson was talking about when he was asked after the season ended about what the offseason holds for his star quarterback.

"Just my main message to him was he needs to get out of football for a little bit," Johnson said.

"It's important for really all of us coaches, players, support staff," Johnson added. "We get away for a little bit, we hit the reset button, I think everyone needs that here at this point."

The contest will be televised as part of the NBA All-Star Weekend on Friday. The Friday slate includes a celebrity game at 6 p.m. and the Castrol Rising Stars games at 8 p.m.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.