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coach talent. Now nobody can coach no talent, but some people
can’t coach talent, and you do a really good job at coaching talent.”
And I said, “Coach, I understand. What you’re saying here is that
I’ve got a lot of good players,” and he said, “Yeah, but it is some-thing
that is not enough for some people.” Regardless of how good
or bad a coach is, you can only go as far as really good players can
take you. I’ve never lost sight of that.
WBM: You have said you could talk the paint off the wall.
When you were making little-to-no money as a part-time assis-tant
coach for Dean Smith, you supported your family selling
calendars; in fact, you sold $38,000 worth of them in 1985.
You’re known as a great coach ... but aren’t you just as much a
salesman? Aren’t you always selling yourself and your basketball
program?
RW: I’m always promoting the University of North Carolina; I’m
always selling the University of North Carolina; I’m always selling
our basketball program; I’m always promoting our success; what we
have done and our vision of what we want to do. I believe that I
Coach Roy WIlliams, Wrightsville Beach 2012
could sell sand to an Arab. I sold programs when I was a freshman
at the football games. When I was in graduate school I sold sun
visors because I was about to run out of money one weekend, and
they had somebody that was not going to be there. I sold more sun
visors than anybody had ever sold on a Saturday at Kenan Stadium.
WBM: It seems to me that your whole career has been about
giving kids the life you dreamed of for yourself. The life you
would’ve chosen. Am I right?
RW: There’s something to that because my high school coach did
so much for me. I don’t know where I would be if it hadn’t been
for Buddy Baldwin, but I know I would not be sitting here talking
to you. I know that much. I’ll never be as good as Coach Baldwin
was, and I’ll never be as good as Dean Smith was, but it is some-thing
that you try to give those kids and make sure that they know
they’re important, and at the same time never lose sight of doing
the job that the University of North Carolina has hired me to do.
WBM: Your friend, John Grisham, described your early life as
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WBM june 2012