July 22, 2009
Buy Tickets To Alumni Game
By Adam
Lucas
Roy Williams is in Las Vegas today for one of the biggest AAU basketball events of the summer. It's the kind of week where players earn and lose reputations, and where a head coach like Williams might just spot a future Tar Heel. We asked the Carolina head coach his memories of the first time he saw a host of players who went on to become Tar Heel greats--and who will be back in Chapel Hill for the NBA alumni game on Sept. 4.
Jerry Stackhouse: "I saw Jerry at the Nike All-America Camp in Indianapolis. I said, `Wow.' He was one of those guys who already had the body, and you knew he would fit the position he was going to play. He had a perimeter game that would be necessary because he wasn't going to be a center.
"I spent a little time recruiting Jerry (for Kansas). I went and sat down with him face-to-face at Oak Hill Academy. We met in Coach (Steve) Smith's office. I said, `Jerry, is there any chance you could really come to Kansas?' He was very nice, and he said, `I could see playing for you. But I don't know that much about Kansas.'
"I told him that was a good enough answer and told him we should move on. I told him I knew people were saying negative things about North Carolina, and they were probably saying that Coach Smith had too many players and he would limit Jerry's creativity. Jerry said, `Yes, that's what they are saying.'
"I looked at Jerry and I said, `I know you want to be an NBA player. Tell me any NBA team and I will call them on that phone. Within five minutes, I will have either their GM, their head coach, or their personnel guy on the phone. They'll tell you they would love to have any player from North Carolina on their team.'
"After all that, then I got a speeding ticket on the way back to Charlotte after meeting with him."
Rasheed Wallace: "Oh, man. I saw him during a workout at his high school. We (Kansas) visited hard with him. Coach Smith, Coach Guthridge and Phil Ford went up there after winning the national championship and Rasheed told them he was coming to Carolina. His mom, Jackie, said she was fine with that choice because Coach Smith was one of her two favorite coaches. Coach Smith asked who the other one was, and she said Roy Williams. Coach said, `He's one of ours, too.'"
Vince Carter: "Athletically, he was as good as any basketball player I'd seen since Michael Jordan. Like Jerry, you could see that he could play his position. He was not a 6-foot-4 center. He was a 6-4 perimeter player who would only get better."
Antawn Jamison: "I saw him at an AAU tournament they used to have in Winston-Salem. He was sort of funky looking and unorthodox but I don't know that I had ever seen a big guy who could score that quickly. The ball would touch his hands and it would be in the basket. Bernard King was a great scorer in the NBA because he shot the ball as he was going up. That's what Antawn reminded me of."
Marvin Williams: "I was sitting in my office at Kansas and Danny Manning came by and said he had someone who was going to be in the ninth grade who he wanted me to meet. It was Marvin Williams. One of Danny Manning's best friends was also best friends with Marvin Williams Sr. At the end of the summer after Marvin's 9th grade year, I was in Los Angeles at an event. I saw on the schedule that Marvin was there with a team from Seattle. I had a break in my schedule so I went to watch, and I was the only head coach there. I thought he had a chance to be a great player."
Raymond Felton: "I saw him in Las Vegas. I knew North Carolina was recruiting him really hard. I watched him play about 15 minutes and thought he was really special. I told Matt (Doherty) I had seen him and he was a big-time player."
Ty Lawson: "It was in Augusta at the Peach Jam and he didn't start the game. Coach Holladay had seen him the night before and told me I needed to watch him. They put Ty in the game, threw the ball to him, and he went down that court so fast. I knew that even if that wasn't Ty Lawson, we needed to find out who it was. But of course it was Ty. When you see a player like that, you get nervous because you know it's what we really need because of the way we play."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of five books on Carolina basketball, including the upcoming book on the 2009 national title, One Fantastic Ride. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
