Jason Williams came early to practice last season with his former team, the Sacramento Kings, so he could work on his shot -- the one in which he banks the ball off the overhead scoreboard, then watches everyone's jaw drop when it ricochets off the backboard and goes through the net.

Then he just grins. He's good.

That lingering image -- wraparound passes, wild 3-pointers, a sleep-with-his-ball, unbridled passion for the game -- may never leave him now, no matter how long he plays in the NBA, or how conservative he eventually becomes.

The first-year Memphis Grizzlies -- a collection of veteran castoffs and promising rookies -- have put their fate in the hands of the "Wild Child."

With Williams, there is no walking in Memphis, Tenn. He isn't going to replace the blues, the barbecue or the King, but he does get the fans' blood stirring again in Graceland. That's why he's there.

When the Grizzlies moved from Vancouver last summer, the change was more than just location. The team that plays the Orlando Magic tonight at TD Waterhouse Centre won't even resemble the Grizzlies from a year ago.

Not with Williams, the former University of Florida bad boy, whose love of the flash instantly made him one of the NBA's most popular players when he burst on the scene as a rookie during the 1998-99 season.