"When he was a child, the player he always used to talk about was George Gervin," Williams' mother, Theresa Williams said. "They used to tease him at school wearing his socks like that, especially in college.

"He refused to pull them down."

A question then, Mrs. Williams: is he stubborn or is that just the way he is?

"That's just the way he is," Williams said.

Walt Williams has always been a little old-school. With his socks high, he was one of the first to bring the headband back to the NBA. His game and nickname is old school. A smooth-shooting forward in the Gervin-Bob McAdoo mold, Williams isn't known by a first initial, first syllable of the surname moniker such as "Walt-Will" or "Dub-Will." No, Williams has one of the cooler nicknames, given to him by his college coach: The Wizard.

"We call him Junior," Theresa Williams said, "after his daddy."

Photo gallery: Walt Williams ... Walt Williams is still socking it to opponents in the NBA. Glenn James NBAE/Getty Images

And when it came to basketball, he took after both his father and his mother, who played hoops in high school. Walt plays forward as his mother and father both did. But if it weren't for mom's concern regarding her son's health and some gentle teasing from his sister, there may have been no Wizard.

"He started playing basketball when he was 14," Williams said. "I wouldn't allow him to play football. He was suffering from asthma.

"What happened was we took him to the doctor's to get a release form, but I don't think he ever turned it in. I told the coach never to play him a whole quarter. Then in one game, he played the whole quarter and I said, 'What's wrong with this coach?' They didn't get the form."

Despite his talent, Walt wasn't on the floor right away.

"In the ninth grade, he was the water boy," Theresa said. "In the 10th grade, a bunch of boys didn't make the grade. He was on the honor roll, so he made the lineup."

Still, it took some prodding from his sister Stephanie to keep playing.

"There were times he didn't want to play, but his sister was nagging him about playing," Theresa said. "So, he played to shut her up.

"He wanted to get off the team, because he didn't think he was doing good in the starting lineup, but she told him that he had to play."

And play he did. Williams made his way to the University of Maryland, where his mom knew, after one performance, that Walt may truly be a wizard on the floor.

"There was this game he played against North Carolina and he was really sick," Theresa said. "That was his best game and they won that game.

"You just knew."

Still, Mrs. Williams finds it hard to believe her son has been in the NBA for 10 years.

"It was almost unbelievable," Theresa said about the first time she saw Walter in the NBA. "He's really playing pro.

"And even now, I tend to forget even when people will come up to him. He's very laid back. I've had people tell me that you wouldn't know he was an NBA player. Then I ask: "How does a player act?"

Well, this is how Walt Williams acts. He buys his mom a car for Christmas his first year in the league. Then for her 50th birthday, he replaces that blue Camry with a Lexus. He establishes a $125,000 scholarship fund at Maryland which benefits minority students in the name of his later father, Walter Sr.

Then again, as mom says, that's just how Junior is.