LAS VEGAS -- On the Friday before the Boston Celtics began practicing for Las Vegas Summer League, Robert Williams had a flight to catch back to College Station, TX. Before he went to the airport, he worked out with Celtics coaches in the morning, gave his introductory press conference around noon, and participated in a Celtics Shamrock Foundation event at a local school a couple of hours later.

All the while, Celtics staffers were racing to find Williams' wallet.

The rookie big man realized he had left it at his hotel, and making his 5:30 p.m. flight briefly looked dicey as the community event ticked toward 3 and then 3:30 p.m. Eventually, however, the staffers recovered the wallet back at the hotel, and Williams finished his event peacefully.

A day later, as Williams was preparing to leave for the airport to hop on a flight back to Boston, he realized that -- once again -- his wallet was missing. Once again, he knew where it was -- former Texas A&M forward D.J. Hogg had it. But Hogg was already back in Dallas, nearly three hours away.

"I was like, 'Yo bro, I can't get my wallet. D.J., send me my wallet,'" Williams said.

But Williams said Hogg told him overnight shipping was too expensive.

"I was like 'Bro, you have money bro,'" Williams said. "But he just brought it out here (to Las Vegas)."

Hogg, who plays for the New Orleans Pelicans' Summer League team in Las Vegas, suggested to MassLive earlier this week that Williams may have missed his flight because he didn't have his wallet. While it's unclear (maybe more accurately: unlikely) whether or not that assertion is true, lacking an ID certainly further stacked the deck against Williams. Still, he said he believed he might able to get through security without his ID, despite what his friends were telling him.

"It was like almost morning, close to the flight, just getting everything ready, putting everything by the door, and I'm like '(Expletive), I ain't got my ID,'" Williams said. "I'm like, 'Cool, they'll let me through.' I kept telling myself that. And then a couple of my homeboys was like 'Bro, like, that (expletive) is gonna be tough. They're not gonna just let you through.' But I got through."

Williams missed his flight, which started the firestorm of media attention that surrounded him when he returned. Since then, the conversation hasn't really died down as both media and fans try to make sense of an incredible young athlete with sky-high potential who has scuffled a bit in his first couple of weeks with the team.

Setting that aside, Williams is open to more creative solutions to his wallet problem.

"I got to start gluing it to my phone or something," he said.

Despite Williams' rocky start, Brad Stevens told reporters on Monday that he likes what he's seen from the 20-year-old.

"I'm really encouraged by his work, his attitude," Stevens said. "He picks things up really quickly. I've been really encouraged."