The Boston Celtics have continued to climb the playoff ladder, and as of right now, have surged onto the No. 4 spot in the Eastern Conference. Deemed by some as the “dark horse” this season, Boston has been led by superstar duo Jayson Tatum, who is averaging a career-high 27.0 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, and Jaylen Brown. Against the the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, Tatum and Brown both scored 30-plus points and made Celtics history—the feat marked their sixth game this season where they’ve each had a 30-piece.
Then there was the performance of Grant Williams, who played solid defense on reigning MVP Nikola Jokic and even blocked his shot in the second quarter. After the game, teammate Jaylen Brown told the media that Williams “wants his nickname to be Batman.”
According to Williams, his dad came up with it awhile back.
“My dad came up with that over a year ago,” Williams said, per Taylor Snow of Celtics.com. “We played Denver, he was joking about it saying, ‘We should just call you Batman from now on.’ It wasn’t just because of the whole Joker thing. It was more so I’m not like the most athletic, I’m not the most incredible, but brains and then like everything else you work with, that was the Batman kind of spiel.”
Williams apparently has other nicknames for his teammates, too, based off of Marvel characters. Given the Celtics “superhero-like” ascent this season into a top spot in the East, they might be fitting, as the team currently holds the highest defensive rating in the League.
On Monday night against the Thunder, Williams’ continued to impress and posted his first career double-double, scoring 20 points and 10 rebounds in the 132-123 win.
In the postgame press conference, teammate Al Horford interrupted and asked, “IS THIS BATMAN?”
Williams is currently averaging a career-best 7.8 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. The Celtics will head back home to face the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
