Normally, May is a merry month for Roy Williams.
Not May 2000.
“I’ve always said May is my favorite month. I don’t know if I can say that this year,” said Williams, whose golf game took a back seat to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Association meetings previously held in June.
And that’s not the worst of it.
May 2000 will forever be known to Jayhawk fans as the month McDonald’s All-American DeShawn Stevenson spurned KU for the NBA.
On May 3, Stevenson issued a press release stating he’d declare for the NBA Draft.
He reversed and re-committed to KU a few days later when he was told he’d recorded a qualifying score on the SAT.
On Sunday, he flip-flopped a final time, telling Williams he was NBA-bound after learning his test score had been red-flagged and he’d have to take it again.
“Do I think it’s the best thing for him to do? I have no problem saying, ‘No,”‘ Williams said of the NBA choice. “But it’s him (making the choice). I knew DeShawn had a dream to go to the NBA. I have no problem with that. I hope every kid I recruit has it as part of their dream.
“I do think instead of people making jokes about it they should say, ‘Hey, at one point he wanted to go to Kansas. It didn’t work out, so he’s chasing another dream.'”
Yet that dream could turn into a nightmare if the 6-foot-5 Fresno, Calif., product is not selected in the first round of the draft. Only first-round picks receive guaranteed salaries.
“DeShawn knows he has some holes in his game,” Williams said. “He wanted to go to college. His mother wanted him to go to college. His grandmother wanted him to go to college.”
He isn’t enrolling in college for one reason, Williams said. His most-recent passing SAT score was red-flagged by the Educational Testing Service, meaning Stevenson would have to take the test again and receive another passing mark if he hoped to qualify for a scholarship.
“I am convinced. There is no doubt … if DeShawn had a qualifying test score in the fall, he would never be in this position,” Williams said.
Williams and Stevenson’s mother suggested he plod on and try to qualify academically.
Yet with the deadline for the draft looming last Sunday, Stevenson went the pro route, informing Williams of his decision Sunday night.
“There’s nobody I ever dealt with that is more solid than Genice Popps,” Williams said of Stevenson’s mother. “Nobody. Yet there are some other people who did get DeShawn’s ear, put some things in his ear.”
Stevenson’s AAU coach and adidas shoe representative Sonny Vaccaro denied steering Stevenson to the NBA, but both admitted they’d heard he was a definite first-round draft pick.
“If DeShawn had a passing test score in the fall, this would never have been an issue,” Williams said of the NBA. “Some of the summer people advising him were saying, ‘You ought to keep your options open because you don’t have that test score.’ That basically caused the whole thing the test score.”
Public discussion of Stevenson’s test score irked Williams this past month. He’s miffed the media made phone calls to the Stevenson household asking for the score.
“For someone to call and say, ‘What did you score on the test? I’d tell you to take a flying leap,” he said.
And he’s upset a high school official reportedly released Stevenson’s score to the media.
KU’s coach is not upset at the NBA, though he wonders about the league yearly accepting one to a handful of high schoolers.
“If I’m the NBA I’d be more worried (than colleges),” Williams said, “because they are getting younger and younger and less mature and less mature.
“Jonathan Bender … last year Indiana traded up to take him (out of high school) with the fifth pick of the draft. The fifth pick is probably guaranteed $6 million. In an 82 game season he played 23 games and less than 200 minutes. The year before (high schooler) Al Harrington played less than 70 minutes the entire season. But he’s got a million dollars.”
Williams said he doesn’t fault players for heading to the pros.
He said all college sports writers would leave school after two years if say, the New York Times guaranteed them a million dollar pact.
“Don’t give me this junk, ‘I’m gonna stay at ol’ KU. That wouldn’t happen if you were offered that,” Williams said. “You’d leave. What’s the difference if it’s a basketball player?
“Some are more sure than others. Chris Mihm … I don’t think there’s any doubt. Everybody I talk to says Chris will be a top five pick,” WIlliams said of the Texas junior who has declared for the NBA.
“Now some others are taking more of a chance.”
Williams hopes Stevenson is selected in the first round and he does make millions.
He wants the best for the player and his family.
“It was a difficult time for all of us the last month, but it was not nearly as difficult for coach Dougherty (Neil, KU assistant), myself and our staff than it was DeShawn’s mom. It was more difficult on her than anybody,” Williams said sympathetically.
