Blue Heaven 20 Questions with Coach Roy Williams
Interviewed by Pat Bradford with Cole Dittmer
Photographed by Joshua Curry
Edited by Pat Bradford, Marimar McNaughton and Paul Pastorini
Transcribed by Courtney Houston with Niles Merritt
I
“Hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but without it you have no chance,” University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill basketball coach Roy Williams says in his 2009 autobiography. In June, ESPN ranked UNC as the
No.1 college basketball coaching job in the country.
This charming, frighteningly organized, demanding, emotional, fiercely loyal basketball coach dribbled his
way from a rural, mountainous North Carolina cotton mill town to the top of his game. He grew up hard,
in what he describes as a family of outlaws and fighters. Besides fear of failure, Roy Williams credits those who believed
in him with his remarkable success in the game he describes quite simply as, “five guys going in the same direction.”
On the court he is an intimidating presence, dressed in a fine suit, actively coaching his team to victory. Off
the court he finds respite in the sea breeze, in T-shirts and flip flops, in frequent walks, in catnaps and time spent with
his family and foxhole buddies. Whether he’s on “The Hill” or at Wrightsville Beach, Roy Williams is comfortably at
home in his own personal blue heaven.
WBM: You said in a 2009 Wall Street Journal interview that
there are three, maybe four, critical things you put up on the
white board — that influence the outcome of every game — but
I’m interested in the three or four critical things that influence
the outcome of the game of life.
RW: I want to try to outwork you. No question about that.
I want to. If I lose, whether it be a game, recruiting or a house that
I want to buy, or whatever, I don’t want it to be because you put
in more time and you put in more effort. I want to be more pre-pared.
The other thing: Life is about people and I’ve always wanted
to be concerned about people. I’m still corny as the day is long but
I want people to like me. I do have that feeling that respect would
be more important. But I do want to care about people. I want to
be friends with people. I want to try to understand that they have
different problems than I do. And then the other thing is I try to
never lose sight of what is important. Most people think the games
are more important than it is. My daughter one time gave me a
little thing that said, “Statistics are important, but relationships last
a lifetime,” and I’ve never forgotten that.
WBM: You recruited a host of greats — including Michael
Jordan from Laney High School. You have said recruiting
means everything — that your life revolves around recruiting,
that you never stop. Do you still personally recruit as much?
RW: In some ways I recruit harder now than I did 15 years ago.
Real close friends agree that it’s fear of failure. They don’t think
it’s just that I’m driven. You can coach all you coach, but you
can’t take a Jack mule to win a Kentucky Derby; you gotta have
a thoroughbred. For me, I do understand that there’s a lot of really
good coaches and that, if I had better players, I’m going to win the
game. At the University of Kansas and at the University of North
Carolina, winning the game of basketball is extremely important.
Coach Smith one time said the athletic department is not the most
important thing about the university, but it is the front porch. It’s
what people see most often that gets the most attention. And the
alums have a great sense of pride and so they grab on to that. I
realize I’ve got to have really, really good players. I sat with Coach
John Wooden one Sunday afternoon when he was 90 years old,
and he said, “Roy, one thing that you really do well, you can really
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WBM july 2012