Williams' Pride Round "Honour"

South East Melbourne centre Alan Williams has described the opportunity to play in the NBL’s inaugural Pride Round as “an honour”, with the star import stating he feels it’s a significant step in the right direction for representation and inclusion.

Williams was a dominant force in the paint in the opening clash of Champion Pride Round and put the Taipans to the sword with his offensive work in the post. He finished the game with 17 points, 13 rebounds and a pair of blocks.

His teammate and captain Mitch Creek has been a vocal supporter of the addition of Pride Round to the NBL calendar, and Williams says the team his happy to support their star player.

“I’m a firm believer in support,” Williams said post-game. “I know how much [Pride Round] means to everyone and I think there are stories from here until the beginning of time of people who have had issues with themselves and issues with how the world sees or perceives them.

“I think it’s a great thing that us as the South East Melbourne Phoenix are doing. We went all out, we showed our support and I think the community appreciates that.

“It’s a great initiative by the NBL to create this bigger and bigger image of inclusion, I find it an honour to be able to play in a league like this with an organisation like this and in a round like this.

“It’s super significant to a lot of people who feel under-represented.”

Head coach Simon Mitchell echoed Williams’ sentiments, and cited Melbourne United player Isaac Humphries as a reason education on the issues of sexuality are of paramount importance.

“We’ve had this thing with Isaac this year and him coming out, and talking about the issues he’s gone through and some of the depths of despair he went through,” Mitchell said.

“I don’t have a relationship with Isaac but I shook his hand and said I’m proud of him when we played Melbourne – and I hate Melbourne – but to know there’s people out there feeling that way, we’ve got to open our arms to let them know we’re a safe space, we’re an ally, and we’re friends.

“We’re really just holding out a hand to our brothers and sisters out there and we’re looking out for our community.”

The victory over the Taipans has elevated South East Melbourne to fifth position on the ladder, despite missing co-captain Ryan Broekhoff through injury.

The Phoenix close out their season with a trip to Sydney to take on the Kings on Sunday afternoon – and Wednesday night’s win could prove crucial in their hopes of securing a play-in position.

Trey Kell was one of the players earmarked to step up in the absence of Broekhoff, and he performed strongly to finish the game with 17 points and six rebounds.

“Losing ‘Rowdy’ (Broekhoff) in the last game – we needed guys to step in and cover for him,” Mitchell said. “I thought Trey was huge and it was really important for him to hunt his offence a little bit more.

“We had a chat with Trey before the game and saying that’s what we were going to miss the most. You can cover for the defence and you can help with the boards, but we needed him to be like ‘Rowdy’ and hunt the ball – and I thought he was tremendous at doing that. He was great.”