A CONTRADICTION LIKE IT OR NOT, JASON WILLIAMS WILL DO IT HIS WAY.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer

Jason Williams is the most introverted player on the Sacramento Kings: quiet, shy and reclusive.

He's also the funniest guy on the team, busting up teammates with a wicked sense of humor that spares no one.

On the court, Williams is flashy, excitable and barely containable. Off it, he'd rather spend the day at the dentist than talk to the media. He disdains fanfare and barely tolerates the stardom that comes with being one of the top young players in the NBA.

The contradictions are unmistakable and that's the way Williams prefers it. He doesn't play for the fans or the media. He plays for just himself and the 11 other players he works beside each day. He can do with out everyone and everything else, and usually does.

Nothing personal, but if you aren't part of Williams' inner circle, you only get glimses of who he really is. If you want to know him, watch him play. That's the closest you'll ever get.

``Now, I might be loud and wild around my friends in the hotel room,'' Williams said. ``But in the hotel around some people I don't know, I'm not going to be like that. I don't think people know who I really am and that's partly because I don't let them know.''

Kings' forward Chris Webber has seen both sides of Williams. The shy Williams, Webber believes, is the result of a defense shield Williams has constructed to keep outsiders at arm's length.

``I don't know if people ever see the real Jason,'' said Webber, Williams' closest friend on the Kings. ``He acts one way around us, but then I think he's afraid that if he allows everybody to see that side of him, people might become disrespectful or think that they are closer to him than they really are.

``So he has a professional side that shows when he is dealing with the media, and then there is the real side of him when he acts just like himself.''

Perhaps, but Williams' reluctance with stardom sometimes causes him to cross the line. Since coming to Sacramento as the seventh pick in the 1998 draft, Williams has blown off public functions, including a team parade to honor the Kings in downtown Sacramento, devloped a prickly relationship with the media and has been caught on camera matching verbal jabs with hecklers in the stands.

And for all his stylish play and entertaining passes on the court, Williams looks like someone who wishes everyone but his teammates and opponents would just go away.

``He's definitely happiest when he's on the court playing,'' said Kings co-owner Joe Maloof. ``He has such a love and passion for the game. He'll play it anywhere, anytime. He appreciates the fans and the media, but it's the basketball part that he loves most.''

Williams' rise to fame has been quick and overwhelming, which he admits has caused problems. He's not like some of the league's other young stars, whose images were cultivated at big-time college programs. And he's certainly not a smooth talker like Kobe Bryant or an engaging personality like Kevin Garnett.

In fact he's anything but those things, just a small-town kid from West Virginia with a checkered past.

His tendency to get in trouble hurt Williams in college. He played just 48 games in two years at Marshall University and Florida.

Williams' talent was never a question, which is why the Kings took a chance by taking him so high. They were rewarded with a breathtaking rookie season in which Williams averaged 12.8 points per game and captured the imagination of fans across the country with his fascinating style.

But even his play is a contradition. Williams' passing wizardry, though pleasing to the eye, often results in turnovers. He plays point guard but has the gunner mentality of an off guard. He plays out of control, gets caught up in the emotions of the game and sometimes worries too much about what fans in the seats are saying rather than what his coach wants.

``Especially on the road,'' Kings coach Rick Adelman said. ``There are some times he's trying to show people things and he shouldn't have to play the game that way. He should just go out and play the game the way he's capable of.''

Adelman says Williams is improving in those areas, but that hasn't stopped him from sitting Williams for long stretches in favor of Tony Delk, a steady backup.

That was the case on Thursday in the Lakers' 113-89 victory in Game 2 of the NBA Western Conference quarterfinals to take a 2-0 lead in this best-of-five series. William had just nine points and one assist in 25 minutes. During the regular season, Williams averaged 12.3 points and 7.3 assists.

``He still has those times in a game when he gets out of control and plays mostly on emotion, and then it's not really a thought process'' Adelman said. ``But he's getting better. I mean, he's in the top 10 in assists. And when he really understands the flow of the game a little better, I think you're going to see his assist-to-turnover ratio rise even higher.''

Whether he handles stardom any better is another question.

``You can't change people,'' said Kings co-owner Gavin Moloof. ``For the most part, Jason is quiet and shy. You can't make him something he's not. We play him to play basketball and we're extremely happy with how he does that.''

BY THE NUMBERS

A look at Sacramento's Jason Williams' regular-season numbers through his second year in the NBA:

...........PTS..FG%..3PT FGS..A...TO

'98-'99....12.8 37.4 100......299 143

'99-'00....13.2 37.2 138......584 291

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Sacramento's flashy guard, Jason Williams, likes playing basketball, and he definitely plays it his way.

Bob Galbraith/Associated Press

(2) Jerome Williams of the Pistons is flat-footed while trying to stop the Kings' Jason Williams, who passes off to a teammate.

Duane Burleson/Associated Press

Box: BY THE NUMBERS (see text)