Pat Williams

Pat Williams is the senior vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic, a motivational speaker and former Minor League baseball player and executive. 

Since 1968, he has been affiliated with NBA teams in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia—including the 1983 World Champion 76ers–and now the Orlando Magic which he co-founded in 1986 and helped lead to the NBA Finals in 1995. Twenty-three of his teams have gone to the NBA playoffs and five have made the NBA Finals.

In 1996, Pat was named as one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history by a national publication. In his NBA career, he has traded Pete Maravich, traded for Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and Penny Hardaway, and won four NBA draft lotteries, including back-to-back winners in 1992 and 1993 and most recently in 2004.

Pat also drafted Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney and Darryl Dawkins. Williams signed Billy Cunningham, Chuck Daly, and Matt Guokas to their first professional coaching contracts. Nineteen of his former players have become NBA head coaches.