A Family Affair: Mark Williams goes 15th Overall in the 2022 NBA Draft

Mark Williams (right) poses with his older sister and Washington Mystics forward Elizabeth Williams (right). June 19, 2022, Entertainment and Sports Arena. Photo by Tiffany Thompson/Black Rosie Media

Less than a week ago, Mark Williams was sitting courtside watching his sister play the Connecticut Sun in Washington, D.C. On Thursday night, WNBA veteran Elizabeth Williams was seated in Barclays Center waiting for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to call her little brother's name. It was Elizabeth's birthday and a gameday for her current WNBA team, the Washington Mystics. Seeing her brother get Drafted to the Charlotte Hornets is not a bad present.

"Like, how cool is it that my brother is about to be drafted to the NBA? Like, that’s freaking dope,” Elizabeth Williams told Slam Magazine. “I watch the NBA, [and] he’s about to be in there. And I’m in the W [and] he’s watching me. Like, what is this? It’s kind of mindblowing.”

Mark Williams went to Duke just like his sister. In two years under the legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski, Williams averaged 7.4 blocks per game and shot at a 74% clip from the floor. He became only the second Blue Devil in school history to tally 100 or more blocked shots in a single NCAA season. Mike was the 2022 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, making him only three DPOY Awards shy of his sister Elizabeth.

The center attended a pre-draft workout with the Washington Wizards on June 18th ahead of the 2022 NBA Draft at Barclays Center in Brookyln, NY. We hired freelance photographer Tiffany Thompson to shoot the event on Juneteeth, which also marked the 25th Anniversary of the Washington Mystics WNBA franchise.

Mark and Elizabeth are excited to be one of the few sibling duos to represent the WNBA and NBA. Imani Mchee-Stafford and JaVale McGee – the children of Womens's Basketball Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist Pamela McGee – are the most recent duo to play at the same time. Pam McGee was the first former WNBA player to have a son and daughter drafted in the NBA and the WNBA.

Mark Williams will be a great edition to the Charlotte Hornets team.

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