In the words of Breaking Bad's Hector Salamanca, "La familia es todo (family is all)." Jalen Williams clearly takes this saying to heart. After his brother, Utah Jazz wing Cody Williams, was lambasted for posting the lowest plus-minus in NBA history, Jalen made it clear that such a stat does not matter and that the bigger headline was that he played well.
After the League Alerts Instagram account made note of Williams' performance in the Jazz's blowout loss to the Charlotte Hornets, Williams responded to a comment that said, "Imagine your brother drops 40 in the finals and then you do this (expletive)" with "he played well…so let’s highlight that as well, I had a -40 and won a finals, plus minus a useless stat."
Jalen Williams on his brother, Cody, having the lowest plus/minus in NBA history of -60 vs. Hornets:
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) January 12, 2026
“He played well… Let’s highlight that, I had a -40 and won a Finals, plus minus a useless stat.”
(via @LeagueAlerts) pic.twitter.com/0IOkzK4GK8
Jalen into becoming one of the NBA's young starlets, making his first All-Star team, first All-NBA team, his first All-Defensive team, winning a title, and winning NBA Finals MVP all in one go. That's insanely impressive, and part of why Cody had some expectations coming in.
Cody has not come close to fulfilling them, but his somewhat inspiring play lately should give Utah some confidence that not all hope is lost. Yes, he made history in a pretty embarrassing way the other night, but that clearly hasn't deterred the Jazz, as he got the start in their game over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Of course, no one wants to see a repeat of that, but it's also fair to suggest that with the Jazz's tanking efforts in full effect, games and individual performances like those happen.
Jalen's not wrong by the way
Cody still had a pretty solid outing, scoring 15 points on five-for-nine shooting is not too shabby. Plus, while the plus/minus is a concern, it's not like Utah getting their behinds kicked at home can all be attributed to one person. When you lose by 50, it's a team thing, not a player thing.
More importantly, these kinds of statlines from Williams were ones the Jazz never saw from him his rookie year. They gave him so many chances, which he never took advantage of last year, to the point that many had lost confidence in him when his rookie season wrapped up.
Now, Utah is seeing results. Not the most ideal results, but at least he's visible on the floor now, which he wasn't last year. Now that Williams has shown that he's not a lost cause, the Jazz have every reason to see through what he could be as a player again. Especially if he doesn't get in the way of their plans this season.