Natalie Williams (Utah, 1999-2002)

NO: 24
POS: Center
HGT: 6-2
DOB: November 30, 1970
SCHOOL: UCLA ‘94

*WHERE IS WILLIAMS NOW?

General manager of the Las Vegas Aces since April 2022.

(*As of February 2024)

WNBA TRANSACTIONS

May 4, 1999	Selected No. 3 by Utah in the 1999 WNBA Draft.
May 1, 2003	Traded to Indiana.
Feb. 11, 2005	Signed a contract extension with Indiana.
April 8, 2022	Named General Manager of the Las Vegas Aces.

WNBA REGULAR SEASON CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

1999, 2000 and 2001 All-WNBA First Team

1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003 WNBA All-Star Games

After Utah won 8 games in 1998, the Starzz with Williams upped their wins to 15 in 1999, 18 in 2000, 19 in 2001 and 20 in 2002.

As a rookie in the WNBA, averaged 18.0 ppg and 9.2 rpg while making 51.9% of her field goal attempts.

Averaged 14.2 ppg and 9.9 rpg in 2001, in leading the Starzz to their first postseason berth.

Recorded five points and 10 rebounds in 23 minutes in the 2000 WNBA All-Star Game and a game high 14 points, a game high tying eight rebounds and added three assists and one steal in the 1999 WNBA All-Star Game.

Competed with Utah Jazz’ Jeff Hornacek, and won, the 1999 NBA All-Star 2Ball contest.

WNBA REGULAR SEASON STATISTICS

Year	Tm	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB/AVG	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS/AVG
1999	UTA	28	26	954	180	347	.519	0	2	.000	144	191	.754	109	148	257/9.2	25	38	22	68	108	504/18.0
2000	UTA	29	29	1039	179	365	.490	3	5	.600	182	228	.798	132	204	336/11.6	51	35	18	79	124	543/18.7
2001	UTA	31	31	1064	171	349	.490	0	4	.000	97	133	.729	111	197	308/9.9	55	41	10	70	128	439/14.2
2002	UTA	31	31	1008	124	285	.435	5	12	.417	98	132	.742	105	150	255/8.2	38	38	16	72	122	351/11.3
2003	IND	34	34	1054	176	363	.485	0	1	.000	105	148	.709	109	146	255/7.5	46	43	21	70	138	457/13.4
2004	IND	34	34	956	133	293	.454	0	4	.000	83	119	.697	93	142	235/6.9	62	40	23	65	122	349/10.3
2005	IND	34	34	804	103	248	.415	0	0	.—	45	67	.672	74	112	186/5.5	31	35	12	56	105	251/7.4
CAREER		221	219	6879	1066	2250	.474	8	28	.286	754	1018	.741	733	1099	1832/8.3	308	270	122	480	847	2894/13.1

WNBA POSTSEASON CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Advanced to postseason play three times, advancing as far as the 2002 Western Conference Semifinals with Utah and the Eastern Conference Finals with Indiana.

Averaged 14.0 ppg, 9.2 rpg and 1.4 bpg in 2002, in what was her most WNBA productive postseason performance.

WNBA POSTSEASON STATISTICS

YEAR	Tm	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB/AVG	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS/AVG
2001	UTA	2	2	57	8	16	.500	0	0		5	6	.833	7	9	16/8.0	0	3	1	5	10	21/10.5
2002	UTA	5	5	186	25	47	.532	1	4	.250	19	28	.679	21	25	46/9.2	7	5	7	8	16	70/14.0
	IND	4	4	134	17	40	.425	0	1	.000	13	16	.813	13	17	30/7.5	6	5	2	1	14	47/11.8
CAREER		11	11	377	50	103	.485	1	5	.200	37	50	.740	41	51	92/8.4	13	13	10	14	40	138/12.5

ABL CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Assigned to the American Basketball League (ABL) Portland Power in 1996 as a premier player.

1998 ABL Most Valuable Player

1997 and 1998 All-ABL first team

1997 and 1998 ABL All-Star

Prior to the ABL folding in December 1998, ranked among league leaders second for scoring (19.9 ppg.), rebounding (9.9 rpg.) and field goal percentage (58.0%), ninth (tie) for blocked shots (9) and 13th for steals (2.0 spg.).

Recorded 12 points and 12 rebounds in the 1998 ABL All-Star Game and 16 points and 15 rebounds in the 1997 game.

Finished the 1998 season as the ABL’s leading scorer (21.9 ppg.) and rebounder (11.6 rpg.), ranked second in field goal percentage (55.5%), fourth in blocks (1.1 bpg.) and tied for eighth in steals (2.0 spg.).

Led the ABL in 1997 in rebounding (12.5 rpg.) and finished tied for fifth in scoring (17.3 ppg.)

Recorded an ABL-high 22 double-doubles in 1996-97.

Holds the ABL single game rebounding record with 22 vs. Atlanta (1/9/97).

ABL REGULAR SEASON STATISTICS

YEAR	G/S	FGM-FGA	PCT	3PM-3PA	PCT	FTM-FTA	PCT	REB/AVG	PTS/AVG	AST	BLK	STL
1999	13	94- 162	.580	0- 0	.—	70- 95	.737	129/ 9.9	258/ 19.9	29	9	26
1998	44	351- 633	.555	1- 5	.200	261- 359	.727	508/ 11.6	964/ 21.9	84	50	89
1997	32	215- 412	.522	0- 0	.—	125- 186	.672	400/ 12.5	555/ 17.3	50	41	53
TOTALS	89	660-1207	.547	1-5	.200	456-640	.713	1037/11.7	1777/20.0	163	100	168

USA BASKETBALL HIGHLIGHTS

Won gold medals at the 2000 Olympic Games, 1998 and 2002 World Championship, 1999 U.S. Olympic Cup, 1996 R. William Jones Cup.

Named the 1999 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year.

Grabbed a USA World Cup competition record 86 rebounds in 1998 and her 9.6 rpg in 1998 stands at No. 3 among all-time USA World Cup athletes for rebounds averaged in a single competition.

Member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team that rolled to an 8-0 record and the gold medal; averaged 9.5 ppg and a USA second best 6.2 rpg in helping the 1999-2000 USA National Team to a 38-2 exhibition record leading up to the Olympic Games.

Helped the USA capture the 1999 USA Basketball International Invitational title.

Member of the gold medal winning 1998 USA World Cup Team which finished with a perfect 9-0 record and was named the 1998 USA Basketball Team of the Year, aided the U.S. to a 12-1 record in its 13-game pre-World Championship tour.

Started first three of five games before being injured in Australia in September 1998 as the USA National Team posted a 2-3 record against Australia.

Member of the gold medal winning 1996 USA R. William Jones Cup Team; attended trials less than a month after being cut from the ‘96 U.S. Olympic Volleyball Team.

USA BASKETBALL STATISTICS

TEAM	G/S	FGM-FGA	PCT	3PM-3PA	PCT	FTM-FTA	PCT	REB/AVG	PTS/AVG	AST	BLK	STL
2002 WC	8/0	17- 26	.654	0- 0	.—	13- 19	.684	37/ 4.6	47/ 5.9	1	3	7
2002 WCP	4/ 0	3- 11	.273	0- 0	.—	3- 4	.750	20/ 5.0	9/ 2.3	1	1	3
2000 OLY	8/ 0	22- 39	.564	0- 0	.—	17- 25	.680	47/ 5.9	61/ 7.6	8	0	6
99-00 WNT	40/24	150- 265	.566	0- 0	.—	78- 113	.822	249/ 6.2	378/ 9.5	39	5	36
1998 WC	9/ 9	47- 86	.547	0- 2	.000	17- 23	.739	86/ 9.6	111/ 12.3	9	7	9
1998 WCP	13/ 5	76- 106	.717	0- 0	.—	33- 42	.786	99/ 7.6	185/ 14.2	12	10	27
1998 WNT	3/ 3	8- 25	.320	0- 0	.—	4- 8	.500	15/ 5.0	20/ 6.7	0	1	1
1996 JC	9/ 1	34- 66	.515	0- 0	.—	14- 18	.778	63/ 7.0	82/ 9.1	4	3	12
TOTALS	94/42	357-624	.572	0-2	.000	179-252	.710	616/6.6	893/9.5	74	30	101

OVERSEAS CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Competed professionally in Russia for both Spartak Moscow Region and UMMC Ekaterinburg in both the EuroCup and EuroLeague competitions.

Played for UMMC Ekaterinburg in the 2003 FIBA Women’s World Cup, a pro club competition that also featured a WNBA Select Team and helped Ekat to a third-place finish; averaged 13.8 ppg and 8.6 rpg over five games in Samara, Russia.

Played for Spartak in the 2005-06 EuroCup and averaged 14.1 ppg and 6.4 rpg in leading Spartak to the 2006 EuroCup championship.

Averaged 7.4 ppg and 5.0 rpg in 2003-04 for UMMC Ekaterinburg in EuroLeague games.

COLLEGE HIGHLIGHTS

During her four seasons (1991-94), averaged a double-double with 20.4 ppg. and 12.8 rpg., while UCLA compiled a 64-49 record (56.6%) and advanced to the 1992 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen.

Led UCLA to NCAA volleyball titles in 1991 and 1990.

Named the Pac-10 Female Athlete of the Decade (1987-96) and to the Pac-10 All-Decade Team, encompassing all conference sports.

Was selected (2/21/98) as one of UCLA’s 15 greatest women’s basketball players, joining the likes of Denise Curry, Ann Meyersand Jackie Joyner.

1994 and 1993 Naismith Player of the Year finalist.

Named 1994 WBCA All-American first team, 1994 and 1993 All-American first team by Basketball Times and U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

Named 1994 Pac-10 Player of the Year and 1994, 1993 and 1992 All-Pac-10 first team.

Named 1991 Pac-10 All-Freshman Team.

Named Pac-10 Player of the Week 16 times in her career, eight for basketball and eight for volleyball.

Named two-time National Player of the Year and four-year All-American in volleyball at UCLA.

Ranked second among all-time UCLA rebounders (1,137), fourth for points (1,813), third for scoring average (20.4 ppg.) and first for rebounding average (12.8 rpg.) at the end of her four-year collegiate career.

COLLEGE STATISTICS

YEAR	G/S	FGM-FGA	PCT	FTM-FTA	PCT	REB/AVG	PTS/AVG	AST	STL	BLK
1994	24/24	243- 426	.570	75-145	.517	314/13.1	561/23.4	31	73	23
1993	23/23	201- 425	.473	86-115	.748	310/13.5	488/21.2	107	64	8
1992	23/23	197- 352	.560	101-160	.631	318/13.8	495/21.5	29	65	29
1991	19/16	104- 208	.500	61- 91	.670	195/10.3	269/14.2	14	31	12
TOTALS	89/86	745-1411	.528	323-511	.632	1137/12.8	1813/20.4	101	226	97

HIGH SCHOOL

Attended and played for Taylorsville High School in Utah.

PERSONAL

Named Utah’s Female Athlete of the 20th Century, and became the state’s first female Olympic gold medalist in 2000.

Inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.

As a native of Utah, Williams was involved in the Salt Lake Winter Games. She was a part of the USA delegation that flew to Greece to help bring the Olympic flame to U.S. soil, welcomed athletes to the 2002 Olympic Village as mayor for a day, and took part in the 2002 Winter Olympics Torch Relay on Saturday, Feb. 8, prior to the opening ceremony.

Finalist for the 1996 USA Olympic Volleyball Team.

Member of the 1993 and 1991 USA World University Games volleyball team that won the bronze and silver medals, respectively; carried the torch in the 1993 World University Games opening ceremony in front of 85,000 people in Buffalo, New York.

Member of the U.S. National Volleyball Team that won the silver in the 1993 NORECECA (America’s zone) championship.

Daughter of Robyn Gray and Nate Williams, who played for nine seasons in the NBA.

If she didn’t play basketball, Williams would have liked to become a veterinarian because of her love of animals (she once adopted a “pet” spider she named Charlotte while the National Team was in Slovakia in 1998).