Milwaukee Bucks: Getting to know veteran forward Marvin Williams
College
Long before he carved out his place in the NBA and came to stand as something of an elder statesman at this stage, Williams was a standout basketball player in his hometown of Bremerton, Washington.
A five-star recruit and a McDonald’s All-American coming out of Bremerton High School, Williams took his talents to the University of North Carolina under famed college coach, Roy Williams. The choice to play for the Tar Heels proved to be an incredibly rewarding choice for the freshman as Williams was a pivotal contributor in the team’s title run that year while coming off the bench for the Hall of Fame coach.
Along with teammates like Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants, Williams formed a viable core and went on to have a 33-4 record with that Tar Heels squad, which helped them become a one-seed in the NCAA Tournament. And it was a second chance tip-in from Williams that helped break up a 70-70 deadlock with under 90 seconds to go that ultimately proved to be the decisive bucket in the Tar Heels’ National Championship win over the University of Illinois.
Over his 36 games with the Tar Heels, Williams averaged 11.3 points on .506/.432/.847 shooting splits, 6.6 rebounds and 0.7 assists over 22.2 minutes per tilt. Following North Carolina’s championship run, Williams entered his name for the 2005 NBA Draft where he eventually was selected with the second overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks.
But there was a world in which Williams would have come to Milwaukee far earlier than he is now. Former Bucks general manager Larry Harris recalled weighing either selecting Williams or Andrew Bogut with the first overall pick in that year with Gary D’Amato of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel back in May of 2014:
"“If you would poll the league, it was between Andrew and Marvin Williams,” Harris said. “Once we met Andrew and had a chance to spend some time with him, it was pretty clear-cut. Up until that point we were pretty open-minded.”"
Despite only attending Chapel Hill for one year, Williams worked hard to earn his degree in African-American Studies, which he finally completed in July of 2014, not long after signing a two-year, $14 million contract with the Hornets that summer.
Spending several offseasons early in his career working on his degree while staying ready and preparing for upcoming seasons back at his old campus, Williams reflected on taking on such a task while knowing his life as an NBA player was always going to be finite as he told Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders back in January 2017:
"“As a 19-year-old freshman leaving college early, you don’t really understand the climb that you have, but it was not nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be,” he said. “It did take a little bit of time, but I’m constantly encouraging younger guys, especially one-and-done guys, to take a couple classes here and there. It’s just so easy to hop on and do one or two things online, and if you’re heading back—you have four or five weeks during the summer just to get back on campus. It really is not that difficult.” “A degree is everything,” he said. “I’ve always been very aware of basketball never lasting forever. I thought I wanted to coach. I don’t think I will anymore, but I still have that option. Having options is what brings a little bit of peace in knowing that I can do things that I want to do. A degree is only going to help me do those things.”"
Those options will certainly carry well Williams into whatever he endeavors to do in his post-playing career, whenever that day comes.