This is one of Adam Lucas's (tarheelblue.com)
Lucas: 500 Words
Adam Lucas on the win over High Point.
Dec. 9, 2006
By Adam Lucas
These are the rules: use one or two words to describe Roy Williams. He has just won his 500th game as a head coach, and he did it faster than anyone in history. We will do this in 500 words, one for each win, all the way from Alaska-Anchorage (#1) to High Point University (#500).
Talk fast. We have already used 65 words.
Jerod Haase: "Genuine."
Williams is in the locker room after the 94-69 win. He has been given a cake. Actually, "cake" does not do this monstrosity justice. This cake laughs at other cakes.
He is sharing it, passing it out to some assembled friends. He hands out plates stacked with cake, then walks away. Then he reappears. He looks concerned.
"Hey, did you get a fork?" he asks.
"The guy just won his 500th game and he's passing out forks," says one bystander, shaking his head.
Probably, at other places after 500 wins, someone else passes out the forks.
Marcus Ginyard: "Passionate."
Williams made it through exactly 31 seconds of the tribute video played on the Smith Center video boards after the game before getting misty. The photo that pushed him over the edge: a posed shot with Dean Smith in the Smith Center stands.
How many pictures make you cry? There aren't many. That tells you how he feels about that picture--and that person.
Woody Durham: "Competitive."
Steve Robinson: "Competitive."
Wes Miller: "Competitive and tenacious."
Bob Frederick: "Intensely competitive."
This is a man who for a year has dealt with a painful back injury. And yet, ball up a piece of paper and throw it at him in the basketball office--imagine for just a moment that you would actually be willing to commit such a transgression--and he will dive on the floor to pick it up before you can recover it.
Really. He does.
Tyler Hansbrough: "Honest."
Eric Montross: "Mentor."
Jennifer Holbrook: "Integrity."
Quentin Thomas: "Devoted."
This one requires more explanation. Devoted to what, Quentin?
"To his family, first," Thomas says. "To his team and to his players."
Dick Baddour: "Focused. Caring."
They tell stories about him. Golfing with him and working with him and listening to his constant claims of being thisclose to being a "fine physical specimen." What they all do--every single one of them--is smile when they talk about him.
Notice what is not here? No one says "Winner."
He is, of course. The record book proves it. But to the people closest to him, he is so much more than that.
He waves to the crowd, makes a quick speech, and closes with these words: "Thank you for letting me be your coach."
Later, he uses these two words to explain his success: "Extremely lucky."
Consider this: we've already had Dean Smith. Now we have Roy Williams.
So maybe he was right. Maybe "extremely lucky" are the most appropriate words of the evening. But he can't have them.
They don't apply to him.
They apply to us.
This guy writes some of the best stuff ever...so glad I was there for the big 500. I've never seen a cake so big... :)
Adam Lucas on the win over High Point.
Dec. 9, 2006
By Adam Lucas
These are the rules: use one or two words to describe Roy Williams. He has just won his 500th game as a head coach, and he did it faster than anyone in history. We will do this in 500 words, one for each win, all the way from Alaska-Anchorage (#1) to High Point University (#500).
Talk fast. We have already used 65 words.
Jerod Haase: "Genuine."
Williams is in the locker room after the 94-69 win. He has been given a cake. Actually, "cake" does not do this monstrosity justice. This cake laughs at other cakes.
He is sharing it, passing it out to some assembled friends. He hands out plates stacked with cake, then walks away. Then he reappears. He looks concerned.
"Hey, did you get a fork?" he asks.
"The guy just won his 500th game and he's passing out forks," says one bystander, shaking his head.
Probably, at other places after 500 wins, someone else passes out the forks.
Marcus Ginyard: "Passionate."
Williams made it through exactly 31 seconds of the tribute video played on the Smith Center video boards after the game before getting misty. The photo that pushed him over the edge: a posed shot with Dean Smith in the Smith Center stands.
How many pictures make you cry? There aren't many. That tells you how he feels about that picture--and that person.
Woody Durham: "Competitive."
Steve Robinson: "Competitive."
Wes Miller: "Competitive and tenacious."
Bob Frederick: "Intensely competitive."
This is a man who for a year has dealt with a painful back injury. And yet, ball up a piece of paper and throw it at him in the basketball office--imagine for just a moment that you would actually be willing to commit such a transgression--and he will dive on the floor to pick it up before you can recover it.
Really. He does.
Tyler Hansbrough: "Honest."
Eric Montross: "Mentor."
Jennifer Holbrook: "Integrity."
Quentin Thomas: "Devoted."
This one requires more explanation. Devoted to what, Quentin?
"To his family, first," Thomas says. "To his team and to his players."
Dick Baddour: "Focused. Caring."
They tell stories about him. Golfing with him and working with him and listening to his constant claims of being thisclose to being a "fine physical specimen." What they all do--every single one of them--is smile when they talk about him.
Notice what is not here? No one says "Winner."
He is, of course. The record book proves it. But to the people closest to him, he is so much more than that.
He waves to the crowd, makes a quick speech, and closes with these words: "Thank you for letting me be your coach."
Later, he uses these two words to explain his success: "Extremely lucky."
Consider this: we've already had Dean Smith. Now we have Roy Williams.
So maybe he was right. Maybe "extremely lucky" are the most appropriate words of the evening. But he can't have them.
They don't apply to him.
They apply to us.
This guy writes some of the best stuff ever...so glad I was there for the big 500. I've never seen a cake so big... :)