Derwin Dubose

Being like Mike is fine, but taking cues from Roy is best

// April 6th, 2005 // Columns

Throwback: This is one of my favorite columns I wrote when I was a back-page columnist for The Daily Tar Heel, UNC-Chapel Hill‘s Pacemaker Award-winning daily newspaper.

Don’t hate her, Carolina fans, but my mother was blasphemous.

Last October, she — an Alabama state champion coach of both men’s and women’s basketball — predicted this chapter in Tar Heel men’s hoops.

“Don’t expect too much from your team,” she said. “Now, I love Roy Williams, but he needs four years to recruit his own players before you can start winning championships.”

She was convinced that Tubby Smith’s Kentucky squad would win, and our season-opening loss to Santa Clara seemingly supported the case.

But Roy and the boys proved Mom and other naysayers wrong. We went undefeated in the Dean Dome, we earned our first outright regular season ACC title since 1993. We clinched the school’s fourth NCAA championship — the first since Dean Smith’s retirement.

But how on earth did it happen? Carolina had an 8-20 season and was twice excluded from the NCAA tourney as the sand in the Class of 2005’s hourglass fell. Now, we’re tops in the nation.

Sports analysts and leadership gurus will be answering that question for years. But to me, it happened because Roy Williams practices and preaches sacrifice and humility.

Sadly, we live in a Burger King world: Most people want to have it their way in group settings. We want to air our opinions constantly, and our wishes must be honored. We want to do as we please without interference. If we’ve earned a few resume bullets, we think that we deserve to run the show.

We hate sacrifice. Leaving the comfort of complacency or following new rules pisses us off, and we oppose new leaders who change the status quo. We especially hate it if those leaders sideline us to get to the top.

And we want to get a ton of attention. If we lead other people in excelling, we want to receive extra-special awards, to have our portraits hung or to have things named for us. American culture has made us selfish, and as an only child, I have a difficult time managing it.

Roy Williams is an exemplar of how to overcome nature and to be altruistic. He was the best thing to hit Lawrence, Kan., since James Naismith, the inventor of basketball and the University of Kansas’ first coach. Williams took the Jayhawks to the NCAA tournament 14 times in his 15-year tenure as coach. He went to four Final Fours and reached the championship game twice.

He sacrificed his life there for the benefit of UNC, his alma mater. Roy cried during his first Tar Heel press conference because he hated to leave Jayhawk players, recruits, staff, friends and loyal fans, and it pained him to see the shirts proclaiming him to be “Benedict Williams.” Still, he did it for us, and it’s definitely paid off.

But don’t even think that Williams has an ego problem, as most of us would. You won’t see him bragging about the fact that he was asked to coach the Los Angeles Lakers before they targeted that arrogant Durham devil. You won’t see Roy selling himself out on commercials for credit cards and crappy cars, stating that he’s not a basketball coach but a leader who happens to coach basketball.

Roy is too humble and has too much class for that. He spends most press conferences and interviews praising our players and recognizing Tar Heel legends. He even gave credit to Matt Doherty, his beleaguered predecessor who was controversially run out of Chapel Hill, for doing an excellent job in recruiting our great players.

Williams credits himself least. In fact, his motto for the program is, “It’s amazing what can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.” Roy taught our boys to live like he does, and it made a big difference for our team, both individually and collectively.

What if each of us applied Roy’s lessons to our personal and professional lives? Would we be more successful as leaders and employees? Would we have fewer family fights? Would we be more productive academically, especially in terms of group projects? Would Student Congress stop bickering? Would I have stayed with the Campus Y? Probably so.

For that reason, I’m making a pledge to be more like Roy Williams each day, and I’ll be thankful if I can become half the gentleman and leader he is.

Coach Williams, you have inspired me — and with the deepest sincerity and Carolina pride, I thank you. Even though the administration didn’t cancel Tuesday classes, I took a holiday in your honor.