Lou Williams is a peculiar player, as the sharpshooting guard currently leads the Los Angeles Clippers in scoring while somehow coming off the bench. In 2013, however, Williams thought his career was over, until a friend and future head coach helped him.

Speaking to The New York Times' Scott Cacciola for a feature story, Williams described that in 2013, shortly after tearing his ACL while playing for the Atlanta Hawks, he thought his career could be over. However, one of the team’s assistants, Kenny Atkinson, helped reassemble his game.

“Kenny is one of my all-time favorite people in the world,” Lou Williams said. “I give him a lot of credit for getting me back on my feet when I was down and out.”

According to Williams, Atkinson – now the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets – imbued Williams with the importance of routine, and it shows in his play.

Nowadays, Williams is a perennial Sixth Man of the Year candidate, and once again showed why he was consistently deserving of the award this season. Despite being in his early 30s, Williams continues to light up the scoreboard, and even helped the Clippers stun the Golden State Warriors last night en route to a 31-point comeback victory in the playoffs.

This season, Williams averaged 20.0 points and 5.4 assists in just 26.6 minutes per game. Despite the low numbers, the Clippers put a ton of trust into him, running 32.4 percent of their plays through him whenever he’s on the court, according to Basketball-Reference.

While he may have never wanted to come off the bench, that change in trajectory, with the help of a little-known assistant turned head coach, might have saved his career by making Williams remember just how important routine can be.