Corey's promise: "I'll be back"

Corey Williams is built different, everyone’s seen that, everyone knows that, and everyone’s heard that. Now, everyone is witnessing it firsthand.

The much-loved personality has been locked in a battle with stage four cancer since August last year, and it’s a battle he has no doubt he’s going to win.

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Williams is still undergoing treatment and chemotherapy for his illness, but he’s started to rebuild himself from the ground up, and he told Peter Hooley about his first session back in the gym.

“I went downstairs to train – or pick up some weights – and I said ‘let me get the tens’, but they were too heavy, so I said ‘let me get the sevens’, and they were still too heavy. I just saw fives and threes and couldn’t believe I’m looking at five and three kilo dumbbells to lift, and I had to grab the threes,” Williams reflected.

“I was like ‘you’re not where you were before, this is where you have to start. This is what it is’. I can’t think about how I was in the gym lifting 50, 60 kilos pressing. That’s not where we’re at, we’ve got to start over and rebuild – that’s what we’ve got to do.

“It wasn’t a frustrating feeling; I just look at the positives in life. We’re here and we have to rebuild, so let’s make the best version of you this time around, one session at a time.”

Watch the full interview with Corey Williams below. 

As Williams continues his recovery, he’s slowly inserting himself back into the NBL landscape. He’s back podcasting and sharing his views on what is the pointy end of the NBL24 campaign.

This season has felt markedly different without the fan-favourite commentator behind the microphone or at the NBL Overtime desk, but he issued a rallying cry to fans who are champing at the bit for him to take his rightful place back on the NBL broadcast.

“I’ll be back next season, I’m not going anywhere. We’ll continue to fight, we’ll continue to heal, and we will get better,” he said.

“I truly believe Australia, this place is going to save my life. I truly believe that because everything I need is here. I need peace, I need rest, I need great healthcare ... when you combine all of those things this is the place I know without doubt I need to be to heal and get this out of my system.

“I got on that stage (at the MVP awards night) and how I was received, the love in that place for me and the support, I didn’t know I had.

“I’m just so grateful and I know this country is going to heal me, and you’d be a fool to leave a place that’s shown you this much love and appreciation. I ain’t no fool.”

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