Billy D on with Dan LeBaTARD...

[ArtVandelay]

Billy was on last night with Dan. They were trying to promote the Orange Bowl Classic.

Didn't catch the whole thing, but Dan did ask him about going to the NBA. Billy didn't flat out say no, never.

I don't think he is going anywhere anytime soon so let's not have this thread get out of control, but he did say that he likes the aspect of it being all basketball all the time. He did say that having Foley as the AD his whole time there makes it easier. I wonder if Foley retiring would make him consider a jump.

Again, I don't think he is leaving anytime soon, but I would have liked to hear him say no, never. I know there are probably coaches out there who have no desire of going to the NBA and would have said so.

I'm thankful that he is our coach and for everything he has done for the program. I wouldn't get mad at him if he decided to leave for the NBA, just like I didn't when I thought he was going to Orlando. We should enjoy however long he decides to stay.

Go Gators!

[ArtVandelay]

didn't see the other thread.

[GatorLurker]

If Billy thinks that being a head coach in the NBA is basketball all the time I think he is delusional. It will be having to deal with overpaid prima donna's all the time. Does he think that he could bench his best player for a poor attitude in practice in the NBA? Does he know Allen Iverson?

[rserina]

Originally Posted by GatorLurker

If Billy thinks that being a head coach in the NBA is basketball all the time I think he is delusional. It will be having to deal with overpaid prima donna's all the time. Does he think that he could bench his best player for a poor attitude in practice in the NBA? Does he know Allen Iverson?

The point is that the NBA doesn't have restrictions on how much time he can spend with his players, nor does it require you to spend time in the living rooms of high schoolers to persuade his family you are telling him the truth by giving him a nerf gun to shoot you with.

[GatorLurker]

Instead you have to recruit free-agents that will complain to the GM if you don't treat them with proper "respect".

[g8rvet]

OR Billy does not want to say "no, never" because he would be handing a huge bargainning chip away when it comes to contract time. there is dumb and there is DUMMMMMMMBBBBB. Billy is neither.

[tupacbiff]

When billy talks tithe press he is 100% truthful. He is incapable of
Lying.

[LeafUF]

While everyone is focusing on his comments about the NBA we are missing out on his great stories about Joakim and JWill.

http://www.onlygators.com/12/12/2012...-williams-nba/

On whether or not Joakim Noah was a handful all the time

“He obviously was a handful more from an interviewing situation than he was anything else. His persona and when people see him and his hair and his excitement and enthusiasm, it’s really not who he is. He is one of the most unique, caring , loving guys I’ve ever been around. He really wasn’t a handful in a lot of ways. He was very respectful. He did what he was asked to do. Certainly there were some times he may have missed class or come late to something and he had to receive some discipline.

“In terms of being a teammate and being unselfish…the best thing I can tell you about him. I’ll never forget this. When we won the first championship with him and he was the [Most Outstanding Player] and turned down going to the NBA after his sophomore year and he came back, Sports Illustrated was coming in to do a feature story and they wanted to put he and his father on the cover of Sports Illustrated and it was going to be a big spread before the college season started. The writer was coming in from California.

“Joakim Noah, that day, came to my office and said, ‘Coach, I don’t want to do the interview.’ I’m like, ‘Jo, the guy is coming all the way in from California. We should have done this a few days ago.’ He said, ‘I don’t want to do it. I’m not going to do it.’ I said, ‘Jo, why don’t you want to do it?’ He said, ‘Because it’s not about me; it’s about our team. I’ll do the interview if they will put the whole team on the cover with me.’

“He had as good of an awareness as I’ve ever seen of a kid. He would be in a locker room and he was like a lightning rod. After the media would leave the locker room, he would talk to the guys about, ‘I know I get all this attention, but I don’t want it. You guys are just as important as me, and I never want you guys to ever feel like I think I’m bigger than the team or the program or anything else.’ He was unbelievable about having a personal awareness of how his actions, how he played, how he practiced impacted everybody. He really, in a lot of ways, was as pure of a person of understanding human nature of selfishness, maybe more so than anybody I’ve ever coached.”

On Jason Williams’s behavior on and off the court

Donovan: “He’s a piece of work. I always tell this story about Jason. He missed a class and I got him up one day and I ran him. A couple days later, he came late for a tutor and I ran him again. He had another problem again and I ran him again. So he comes into my office like the next week and says, ‘Coach, how about this. How about I never go to class and I get up every morning and run at 6 a.m.?’

“You want to talk about a handful? Jason was a good handful because he loved the game; he just wasn’t a fan of school all the time. The thing that was interesting with Jason is we would practice and we would finish practice at 5:30 p.m. or 6 p.m. and he would leave practice, go eat dinner and he would go to the recreation center and play basketball for three hours at our student recreation center with all the students on campus for three hours. All the guy wanted to do is play ball.”

Van Gundy: “When he was here in his last year here, the last year of his career, he wasn’t playing much. He was actually playing in a men’s league here in Orlando. I’m dead serious. He would come and practice. We had to tell him he can’t play in the men’s league.”

[bike1014]

Originally Posted by LeafUF

While everyone is focusing on his comments about the NBA we are missing out on his great stories about Joakim and JWill.

http://www.onlygators.com/12/12/2012...-williams-nba/

This is awesome on so many levels.

[ArtVandelay]

Classic J-Will! I can picture him saying that...

"Coach, how about this. How about I never go to class and I get up every morning and run at 6 a.m.?"

[ApexNC]

Originally Posted by tupacbiff

When billy talks tithe press he is 100% truthful. He is incapable of
Lying.

this

[GatorLurker]

Jason had and probably still has a "basketball jones".