Retired NBA star Williams released from NYC jail

NEW YORK (AP) Retired NBA star Jayson Williams has been released from Rikers Island jail after serving eight months of his one-year sentence for drunken driving.

A Rikers spokeswoman says Williams was freed Friday.

The former New Jersey Nets player drove his SUV into a tree in lower Manhattan in 2010. That happened a week after he accepted a plea deal stemming from the 2002 shotgun death of a limo driver in his New Jersey mansion.

Before going to Rikers, he served an 18-month sentence for aggravated assault in Wrightstown, N.J.

Williams was once a top NBA player with a six-year, $86 million contract. A leg injury forced him to retire in 2000.

Updated April 13, 2012