Jay Williams Reflects on The Day He Almost Died

ESPN - I couldn’t tell you which pole I hit, but the crash sounded like two cars colliding head-on. I couldn’t turn my body completely out of the way, so I ended up clipping my entire left side, which flung me into a horizontal spinning motion parallel to the ground. In those seconds, everything seemed to slow down. While in the air, I remember thinking, You’ve seen this before. You lived this before.

That’s some incredibly heavy shit from Jay Williams. That piece is from an excerpt of his new book ‘Life is Not an Accident: A Memoir of Reinvention’.

That piece tells pretty much the whole story of how Williams lost his NBA career. But, with the snowstorm hitting most of the East coast, a ton of games are being postponed. So, with all the up in the air, I want to reflect on one of the five best college basketball players I’ve ever seen.

I write this as someone who has hated Duke my whole life. That’s what happens when you grow up as a Wake Forest fan and then attend Kentucky. You hate Duke. I couldn’t hate Jay Williams.

He was too good. He was too fun to watch. He was special, even though he wore the wrong shade of blue and white.

He broke the trend of having to earn stripes at Duke. He came in as a freshman and was a star, putting up 14.5 PPG and 6.5 APG, earning National Freshman of the Year. As a sophomore he nearly did the impossible in leading the ACC in both assists and point. He finished with 21.6 points per game and 6.1 assists per game. During the NCAA Tournament run that saw Duke win another national title, Williams single-handily destroyed UCLA by scoring 17 straight points.

It’s impossible and pointless to do the ‘what-if’ game with Williams as a pro. He showed promise, but Jamal Crawford was stealing a lot of his minutes. Would he have made it in the NBA? Absolutely. Would he have been worth the No. 2 pick? Probably not based on his rookie year.

However, I do know as a college basketball fan there have been very few players that have been as good as Jay Williams at Duke. That shortlist of great college basketball players of this generation (mid 90’s-present day) includes Williams, Tim Duncan, JJ Redick, Tyler Hansbrough and Anthony Davis. That’s helluva company for Williams.

So, do yourself a favor. I don’t give a shit if you hate Duke or love Duke. Read this piece by Williams then go watch his Duke highlights. You won’t be disappointed.

@barstoolreags