Long before Randy Moss began playing long toss with Randall Cunningham for the Minnesota Vikings, the wide receiver was catching passes from another talented athlete.

Kings rookie point guard Jason Williams was one of Cunningham's predecessors.

Williams and Moss attended DuPont Junior High School in Belle, W.Va., together, and the Kings' rookie was the quarterback in eighth grade.

"Moss was the best everything I've ever seen," Williams said Thursday. "He could do everything."

Williams, however, proudly points out that he was the captain of the all-league football team when he played with Moss.

"I played football for fun," Williams said. "I didn't play in high school. They begged me and all that stuff to play football and baseball, but I didn't want to do that. If I did all that stuff, my grades would have suffered, and I didn't need anything like that.

"Plus, baseball would have interfered with AAU (basketball) and camps and all that."

Williams, who has been seen sporting a Vikings sweat shirt around Arco Arena since his arrival, says Moss was a great baseball player, too.

"Center field," Williams said. "Woo, he was nice. He could have gotten drafted if he wanted to play. Basketball, he was nice."

Then there was track, Williams said. "Randy's sophomore year (at DuPont), our track team was terrible, couldn't do anything," Williams said. "They asked him to come out for the state meet. He hadn't practiced or anything. He goes out to the meet and you know how guys get down into the blocks, well, Randy just keeps standing -- and then sets a state record in the 100."

Guard Terry Dehere walked up as Williams told this story.

"Man, you don't know Randy Moss," Dehere told Williams. "I bet he told you the track story, didn't he?"