Terrence Williams Excited To Have Job Security In Boston

How did Terrence Williams know he was going to be a Celtic for the rest of this season?

Easy -- he found out exactly the same way everyone else did.

"It didn't really set in until I saw it on Twitter," Williams said before tonight's game against the Golden State Warriors. "I was like, 'How does Twitter know?' But you know, Twitter knows everything. So when I read it, I was like, 'OK, now it's really true.'"

Williams said his agent had been in talks with the Celtics all along, and once a deal was put on the table today, he wanted to get it done quickly. The 25-year-old swingman had been eyeing the Celtics as a potential landing spot for his return to the NBA since last summer, and after a brief stint in China, he was thrilled to officially make a comeback in the League.

"It feels great," Williams said. "I was here in the summer, and I worked out here for two weeks, trying to be in this position that I'm in today."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers recalls watching Williams' workouts in Boston last summer. At the time, he never envisioned the youngster playing for this year's Celtics -- he had a deep roster overflowing with talented guards, and Williams wasn't really on his radar. But now that Williams has left the Guangdong Southern Tigers and landed in Boston, Rivers already has a feel for how he fits.

"Just from pickup games, just watching the way he's played, you really felt in those situations that he's more point than two," Rivers said. "I don't think he's ever going to be a great scorer in our league, but he can be a great playmaker."

Williams' time in Guandong was short-lived -- he left the States in November, and he came back in February. He enjoyed his experience, though he admitted it was hard at times. He didn't know the language, he had only one American teammate, and he had to endure a lot of seven-hour bus trips through regions with subzero climates.

That said, he doesn't regret a second of it.

"I went because I needed a fresh start to find myself," Williams explained. "Not in terms of playing, I know how to play the game, but just my head. I needed to clear my head, and there's no better place than China. When you go over there, you have to think every day because you're alone so much."

Now Williams is back, and he's ready to be an NBA player again -- a few months older but a lot wiser. He's added a little perspective.

"It helped me a lot," Williams said of the China experience. "It helped with my sense of how I look at things and how professional I will be. It put me in a great situation. You couldn't write a better story than how this happened for me."