Michael Carter-Williams Pulled Off a Brilliant Prank While in Philadelphia
By Liam McKeone
Michael Carter-Williams has had quite a unique journey in the NBA. Not many can say they won Rookie of the Year before getting traded and turning into a fringe rotation player constantly on the verge of an exodus from the league. Yet he's still here, playing down in Orlando for the Magic as a playmaker off the bench with defensive chops.
As he is wont to do, Zach Lowe highlighted MCW's contributions in his yearly Luke Walton All-Stars column, a place to discuss under-appreciated contributions from relative unknowns around the league. In Carter-Williams' section, Lowe also revealed a brilliant and perhaps a bit psychotic prank the point guard pulled off while in Philadelphia:
"As a chemistry-builder, Carter-Williams is the author of one of the great pranks in recent league history -- though it happened in his second season in Philadelphia, he and others said. When the Sixers arrived at the allegedly haunted Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, Carter-Williams arranged with hotel staff to enter the room of each rookie before they could. He removed a vent, inserted a walkie-talkie, and sealed the vent shut. When the rookies arrived, Carter-Williams -- in his room on the other end of the walkie-talkie -- whispered menacing threats and nursery rhymes. He watched the rookies react through baby monitors he had concealed."
- Zach Lowe
Layers upon layers here. Carter-Williams presumably had to grease the wheels of hotel bureaucracy in order to get into the rooms. He had to bring his own tools (or utilize his professional athlete strength, although that doesn't fit the subtlety of his other actions) to open the vents. And he brought baby monitors to watch and laugh as he creepily whispered through his walkie-talkie. Brilliant and evil.
Carter-Williams' contributions to winning basketball may have been few and far between since then, but that right there is a winning effort and remarkable dedication to the gag.