NEW YORK — John Williams, a versatile sixth man for the Cleveland Cavaliers who briefly earned more than Michael Jordan after renegotiating a contract during the summer of 1990, helping to establish the modern era of free agency and huge salaries, died Dec. 11 in Baton Rouge, La. He was 53.
His agent, Mark Bartelstein, said the cause was colon cancer.
Mr. Williams, better known by the nickname Hot Rod, was a solid shooter and a dogged defender during his 13 seasons in the NBA. Listed at 6 feet 11 inches, he played power forward and center for Cleveland.
Lenny Wilkens, the Cavaliers' coach, used Mr. Williams as a reliable substitute, and Mr. Williams did not mind the arrangement.
"All that means is that they have a player on the bench that they can count on," he told the Columbus Dispatch in 1992.
Mr. Williams had a respectable career. He averaged 11 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.6 blocks per game, and his percentages were impressive: a .480 career field-goal average and a .726 free-throw average.
"Hot Rod was one of those freak-of-nature guys who was 6-10, who could shoot the basketball, could put the basketball down on the floor, a very good defensive guy," Ron Harper, a Cavaliers teammate, told ESPN.
Mr. Williams made it to the NBA playoffs nine times but never won the title, in part because of the dominance of Jordan's Chicago Bulls. But in the summer of 1990, Mr. Williams outdid the rest of the league in compensation.
His pursuit of a big payday began when, as a restricted free agent, he rejected Cleveland's offer of a five-year, $11.8 million deal. The Miami Heat offered him a seven-year, $26.5 million contract (more than $48 million in 2015 dollars). Cleveland agreed to match it.
In the 1990-91 season, he made $5 million with Cleveland, reportedly more than Jordan or Larry Bird of the Celtics.
The deal's impact was felt throughout the league, and it led to ever more lucrative contracts and increased free agency, which enables players to change teams and gives them leverage during negotiations.
It was not the first time that Cleveland had taken a chance on Mr. Williams. The team had drafted him when he was embroiled in a point-shaving scandal that shut down Tulane University's basketball program for several years.
Mr. Williams was born in rural Sorrento, La., near Baton Rouge. His mother died when he was 9 months old, and his father abandoned the family afterward. His nickname came from the engine noises he made while playing with toy cars as a boy, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported this year.
Mr. Williams grew up impoverished in the care of a neighbor, Barbara Colar. At Tulane, he averaged 16 points and was expected to be selected in the first round of the 1985 NBA draft. But that March, he and two teammates were indicted on five counts of sports bribery, accused of holding down the score in two games in return for $13,500 and cocaine.
Mr. Williams denied shaving points but testified that he had received $100 a week from his coaches and $10,000 to enroll at the university. The indictments prompted Tulane's president to disband the basketball team and the athletic director to resign. (The program was restored for the 1989 season.)
After a mistrial, he was acquitted in a trial in 1986 and started playing for the Cavaliers that season.