“Broke My Heart”: Bulls HC Struggled to Break Devastating News to Jason Williams

Udonis Haslem and his former teammate Mike Miller’s podcast is off and running! The Gators and Miami Heat teammates invited their former NCAA coach to share some interesting stories from their time back in Florida. Inevitably, they discussed their stories from college where UD and Miller played under the now Bulls Head Coach. Interestingly, the story revealed a deep connected between Billy Donovan and Jason Williams. 

As the story goes, Donovan was an assistant in Kentucky when he discovered “White Chocolate”. Despite numerous attempts to land the young guard though, the assistant coach ultimately had to pursue a different star point guard. The Bulls Head Coach revealed, “I’m trying to recruit Jason Kidd when I’m at Kentucky and anyway, I’ve got to make this phone call to Jason Williams and say, ‘Jason, listen, we’re kind of going in a different direction’. And it broke my heart, coz he and I had gotten close and had a really close relationship during that time.”

But Jason Williams was adamant. He would go to any extent to play with Donovan. The Chicago Bulls head coachshared, “I had a team meeting…So when I was leaving, he was waiting outside for me and he grabbed me, says, ‘I want to come with you’…So he ended up coming to Florida.” 

“White Chocolate” began his collegiate career at Providence College before moving to Marshall University, where Billy Donovan had his first head coaching job. During their two-year tenure with Marshall, Williams broke out, turning down several scholarship offers to remain with Donovan in West Virginia.

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In 1996 though, Billy Donovan would sign as the Florida Gators’ Head Coach. And sure enough, Jason Williams would follow his coach to Florida. Today, Jason Williams holds the Gators record for most assists in a single game (17). It’s incredible though to think, how different things could have been.

How did Coach Billy Donovan discover Jason Williams? 

Coach Donovan has found talents all over America. Before Udonis Haslem, he had handpicked “White Chocolate” during his time assisting for Kentucky’s HC Rick Pitino. Donovan shared in the podcast, “When I was an assistant coach at Kentucky, I had gotten a call from a coach in West Virginia, who told me about Jason Williams. And I invited him to Kentucky’s basketball camp.”

As we know, Kentucky would ultimately pursue a different Jason (Kidd), but Donovan would never forget the skills and tenacity of Jason Williams. “Jason and I really developed a great relationship and we really had a need to bring in like a starting point guard. Jason was probably 6’1, 155 pounds soaking wet…When I went to Marshall, he came with me,” revealed the 2x NCAA champion. 

“White Chocolate” as a point guard was just incredible to watch. He ran amusing and entertaining plays which made him a star in his own rights during his time in the league. Even today, you can see some cold edits of Williams’ playmaking on social media. In fact, Kevin Garnett was seen sharing one of Williams’ compilations just a month ago!

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Well, now we know and the fans will be grateful to Billy Donovan for finding such talents. What are your thoughts on the above story? Share your take in the comments below.