Reunion of high school teammates forms perfect Warriors backcourt off the bench

DeAnthony Melton Reunion of high school teammates forms perfect Warriors backcourt off the bench Dalton Johnson explores the on-court dynamic between De'Anthony Melton and Brandon Williams, high school teammates more than a decade ago. By Dalton Johnson • Published November 6, 2026 • Updated on November 6, 2026 at 10:30 am O’ahu, HAWAII – The third day of Warriors training camp at BYU-Hawaii came with an audience of students and media members getting to watch a long portion of the team’s most competitive scrimmage. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg was seen in the starting lineup. Brandin Podziemski popped offensively. Steph Curry and Draymond Green showed their needed learning curve for Steve Kerr’s new 5-out offense. The four of them, plus Al Horford, formed the starting five wearing blue Warriors pennies. Watch NBC Bay Area News free wherever you are WATCH HERE The backcourt wearing yellow pennies was a blur. De’Anthony Melton and Brandon Williams caused havoc defensively, and the two were track stars in transition. It was a time machine for Melton and Williams , taking them from LA as high school teammates to being back on the same side in the NBA and enjoying island vibes with the Warriors. “Man, this s–t is fun,” Melton thought to himself after the Warriors’ first scrimmage, telling NBC Sports Bay Area on the latest Dubs Talk episode. Melton told Williams before the scrimmage that if he gets a rebound, he’s immediately looking to give him the ball. His message was for Williams to “go crazy” in transition. “You go crazy until somebody stops you, and once somebody stops you, then you kick it out,” Melton told Williams. “We'll figure out some of this other stuff, but other than that, like man, I know how he plays. My game has changed a little bit since high school, but at the same time, he knows how I play.” Golden State Warriors Warriors Analysis 12 hours ago Progress Report No. 1: Six key objectives for Warriors to earn NBA playoffs bid Will Richard Nov 8 Warriors rule Will Richard out of game vs. Pelicans with UCL tear in left thumb That’s when Williams has to chime in. So much is the same years later in their relationship as such close friends. As Williams notes, however, a lot has changed from Melton’s game. “Yeah, you a knock-down shooter now,” Williams says, to laughs. “He wasn’t like that in high school. He could shoot in high school, but it wasn’t to the standard it is now.” Williams will turn 27 years old near the end of the month on Nov. 22. Melton turned 28 at the end of last May. The latter graduated Crespi High School in 2016, and Williams walked the stage two years later in 2018. Their relationship began with Melton getting his first look at his future teammate in the summer of 2014. While Williams’ AAU team was playing a game at Crespi, Melton was there keeping score. During the game, one of Melton’s coaches told him that he heard Williams, who was entering his freshman year, was coming to Crespi. The elder of the two locked in on watching him. But Williams already knew who Melton was, and he wanted him to know too. “I remember going up to him because I was trying to see how much I had after the game,” Williams says. Crespi was considered more of a football school than basketball upon Williams’ arrival. Football might have been Melton’s best sport growing up as well. He could play quarterback, running back, receiver and safety as a kid. Where you needed him, Melton was the answer. Though Williams didn’t get to see the proof in person, he has watched enough film to give Melton his props. “I've seen a lot of clips of him in football, because him and his family always say he was better in football. I wasn't trying to believe it,” Williams says. “So I got to see the film. I saw the film, like, he was actually cold. When I heard he had a difficult time putting the football down for basketball, I was like, all right, yeah, I got to tap in real quick.” Bringing in a talented freshman like Williams was even more incentive to prove Crespi could be a basketball school, too. Once Melton made the varsity basketball team as a freshman, he knew it was game over for football. He felt he had to pick one road, but his football instincts as a natural ball-hawk came back at the perfect time in the Division IV state championship game. Capital Christian guard Justice Shelton-Moseley took off down the left side of the court and had a step on a junior Melton with Crespi ahead by two points in the final seconds. Melton brought Crespi to the state championship, and he wasn’t going to be the reason they lost it. He met Shelton-Mosely in the air and pinned his game-tying layup attempt against the backboard with two seconds remaining, grabbing his own rebound and making a free throw to give his team a three-point lead and eventual win. “Luckily, I had to jump before him because I was beat, and I had to jump before him,” Melton remembers. “He tried to, like, inside scoop me and I jumped early and I barely got that motherf–ka out.” What was the celebration like? “He started cryin’,” Williams says. “We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know what to do. We were all just happy, for real,” Melton responds. The 2015 CIF state championship game exemplified everything of how Williams describes Melton in high school. He says Melton defended 1 through 5 and got to the rack whenever he wanted. Melton says Williams always had the speed that has caught Dub Nation’s attention, and was a natural downhill scorer in high school. Melton as a junior in the state championship game scored 13 points on just 4-of-12 shooting, but also made five free throws, grabbed 13 rebounds, had one steal and blocked four shots. As a senior, Melton was a finalist for California’s Mr. Basketball, and he played like the state’s best in its championship game for a second straight title, scoring 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting with 17 rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocked shots to beat Berkeley. Just a freshman and sophomore, Williams scored seven points in each state title game. For how much Williams said Melton’s game has evolved since those days, there’s a part of Williams’ game that Melton says has always gone underrated. “He can pass that mothaf–ka, you know what I mean. He be making dimes,” Melton said. “He’s a little needle threader. He’ll for sure come off a screen, quick swing – he’s an underrated passer.” Williams sought Melton’s advice entering free agency for the first time this past summer after a breakout season for the Dallas Mavericks. He asked Melton how he should go about the experience and what he should expect, having no expectations himself they’d soon be teammates. The two have always been constantly on PS5, either playing different games or the same together. Melton and Williams chop it up on their headsets playing games like NBA 2K, Madden, College Football and MLB The Show. Williams jokes they “probably talk too much,” but he kept quiet about the Warriors to Melton. In the second week of free agency, Williams had a feeling but not one he could risk sharing, even with someone he trusts so much. For a situation like this, Williams had to be completely confident it was a done deal. All these years removed from Crespi, Williams wanted to make sure this was real. A couple days later, he made the call . “I was like, ‘Hey bro, it might happen.’ It was kind of cool. It was dope,” a smirking Williams says. The Melton-Williams reunion is very real, and the results have been fantastic for the Warriors. They’ve played eight games together and have a 107.1 offensive rating and 100.0 defensive rating in 46 minutes as a plus-8. In their two state championship games, Melton and Williams combined for 51 points. In two games this season without Curry, they’ve combined to score 83 points on 60 percent shooting. Their impact reverberates through the locker room and is felt on both ends of the court. Melton ranks fifth on the