Grant Williams downplays hard foul on Tatum: ‘We’ve seen way worse’

“Probably a hard foul, definitely not intentional.”

Several Boston Celtics players thought Grant Williams was out of line when the Charlotte Hornets forward barreled into Jayson Tatum late in the fourth quarter Friday night.

Williams sees things a bit differently, however.

In an interview with NBC Sports Boston’s Kayla Burton after Boston’s 124-109 win over Charlotte, Williams claimed his actions weren’t intentional when he collided with Tatum at midcourt with two minutes remaining in a play that resulted in a Flagrant 2 foul and an ejection for Williams.

“I think it’s more so he didn’t see me more than anything else,” Williams said. “Like, I’m reaching and I definitely make contact with his body before I reach; probably a hard foul, definitely not intentional, not trying to hurt him by any means. We all know he’s one of my closest friends in the league, and as you see he got up and just walked away.”

Celtics forward Jaylen Brown immediately took issue with Williams’ foul and confronted the Hornets forward with some choice words. Williams, who spent his first four NBA seasons in Boston and says he still has close friends on the team, understood Brown’s ire but still downplayed the foul.

“JB kind of escalated it, but I understand he’s trying to protect his teammate,” Williams told Burton. “But that’s my dog no matter what.”

“I understand how it was maybe like a blind side (hit), and he was more surprised than anything else, but like it wasn’t like I took him out or took his leg out or did anything else,” he added. “Like, we’ve seen way worse in the league. I think that at the end of the day, we all know that’s my dog, so no malice or any issue of that regard.”

Whether Williams will face discipline for his foul on Tatum remains to be seen, but there was one immediate consequence of his actions: His plans to host several Celtics players for dinner after the game seemingly were canceled.

“I’d assume most of those guys will not be coming over for dinner tonight, but I’ll talk to them again tomorrow,” Williams told Burton. “I had wings and stuff prepared, so it’s kind of funny that it’s like, well, the game ended that way. But I’ll see them tomorrow and we’ll compete again.”

The Celtics and Hornets play each other again Saturday night at Spectrum Center, and we wouldn’t be surprised if C’s players are a bit less friendly toward their former teammate this time around. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.