IT'S A PERFECTLY warm, still-aired dusk, and the lights are about to come on over the basketball court that sits on the sprawling hundred-acre property of Katt Williams. Highlights include a small golf course, waterfalls, and livestock he tends to daily. Sheep, pigs, cows, warthogs, and goats mill about in the distance as he checks me the ball.
We'd driven by the court earlier during a tour in his hulking, black Apocalypse truck. "That's the basketball court, where anybody can get it, at any point. Like right now, anybody can get a taste of it," Williams warned me, and I couldn't pass up the chance. So we've been knocking points back and forth in a pickup game to 11. Neither of us is dressed for the occasion: Williams sports a pair of Grateful Dead Nike Dunks and a purple Supreme box logo T-shirt, while I'm in loose black jeans. But I know better than to show up on Katt's court and not give him a good game.
Williams-the 53-year-old stand-up comedian and actor who has carved out an acclaimed and lucrative lane on the edge of the mainstream-plays regularly, he says. Despite being famously short in stature, he shows an ability to dart to the basket, scoop layups under the defense, and at least attempt an off-balance right hook shot pretty consistently. And while I love playing the game, I possess little natural intelligence for it. So, as Williams takes a 6-4 lead, I start using my size advantage in the paint-doing what I call in my head "making space."
Afterward, as we sip Liquid Deaths, he warmly explains that what I call making space is, in fact, fouling. I apologize, and he stops me. "No, no, no," he says. "That's not how we apologize in basketball. That's not how that works. You go, 'Oh, I fouled you? My bad. I'm not allowed to push you, whether I got the ball or not. But if a guy pushes and thinks that's making a play, I'm not gon' be the one to tutor this guy."
This story is from the December 2024/January 2025 edition of GQ US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 2024/January 2025 edition of GQ US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
SHABOOZEY THE BIG SHA BANG
Shaboozey spent months at the tippy-top of the charts with a hit song about dealing with hard times the easy way: by hitting the bar. He sang on a couple songs with Beyoncé too. So we asked the one and only SHANIA TWAIN to help country's biggest new star make sense of his explosive year.
HANNAH EINBINDER BORN STANDING UP
With her star turn on Hacks, the comic turned actor has established herself as one of Hollywood's most exciting young talents-much to her own surprise.
Katt Williams The Man Who Opened The Portal
In January, the comic delivered an instantly iconic podcast interview that threw pop culture into crisis-and seemed to predict all manner of messy celebrity gossip to come. At home on his farm, Williams explains why he said what he said— and why he'd do it again, and again, and again....
JOHN DAVID & MALCOLM WASHINGTON A NEW HOLLYWOOD DYNASTY
The Washington brothers built their careers apart—until an irresistible project drew them together. In The Piano Lesson, they tackle a father's thorny legacy.
FUTURE & METRO BOOMIN'S HISTORIC Hit STREAK
What happens when the best rapper alive reunites with the hottest producer of the moment? You get a back-to-back-to-back run unlike any since the Beatles.
PHARRELL WILLIAMS Designer of the Year
Riding along from Paris to Hollywood to New York with the Louis Vuitton *men's creative director, whose prolific and often prophetic contributions to fashion, film, and music have once again thrust him to the center of the pop culture Venn diagram.
JOHN MULANEY. KID GORGEOUS GROWS UP
After immortalizing the whirlwind of the past four yearsrelapse, intervention, recovery-in his awardwinning standup special, John Mulaney has emerged as one of the most popular comedians on earth. For his next trick, he's embracing his surprising new role as a suburban dad.
DWAYNE JOHNSON THE WORLD'S BIGGEST Actor
It's hard for Dwayne Johnson to hide. Wherever he goes, there he is― as conspicuous out in the world as he is on the silver screen. But after two decades of playing a version of himself in huge movies, suddenly Dwayne Johnson is ready to do something entirely new: vanish.
How the WNBA Became the Most Fun, Complicated, and Exciting League in Sports
Caitlin Clark! A'ja Wilson! Angel Reese! This year, women's hoops emerged as a dominant popcultural force. But the road to sports-league supremacy has been long and winding. This is the inside story of how the W finally broke through.
A Companion for Your Wrist
Audemars Piguet's new release with artist Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS, brings high-art hype to the world of pop-watch collabs.
