Williams to the Bulls: 'Too good to be true'

Jay Williams graces the cover of the July 8, 2002 issue of The Sporting News.

In the July 8, 2002 issue of The Sporting News, Bulls guard Jay Williams graces the cover and Sean Deveney reports on the exclusive access the former Duke All-American point guard gave TSN in the anxious days leading up to the draft, as well as the first days of his dream come true.

An excerpt from the feature article:

July 2, 2002 -- Last Thursday evening, 24 hours after it was over, after his future had been decided, after Yao Ming had become a Rocket and the Bulls followed with a pick so simple that GM Jerry Krause said it could have been made by "an old, blind man," Jay Williams sat at a table at Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in downtown Chicago, numb and quiet.

Williams sat with Krause and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, listening to Krause tell stories, looking at his parents, David and Althea Williams, and the handful of friends and advisors who, after having been with him all week, seemed equally numb and quiet.

When Krause apologized for talking so much, he had no idea he had been doing his guests a favor. The previous few days had featured a draining blend of talk, uncertainty and a lack of sleep, so they were happy simply to sit and listen, to leave conversation to someone else. Sometime during the dinner, Williams thought: I am in Chicago. I am a Bull.

It was what he wanted, though heading into the draft it somehow seemed both inevitable and impossible. The Bulls were a perfect fit, a young team in need of a point guard, in a city that had charmed him. But it could not be that simple, could it?

Williams recalled a conversation about a week earlier with Krause's assistant, B.J. Armstrong, in which he asked Armstrong how things were looking, and Armstrong replied, "It's looking good. Almost too good to be true."

Williams had replayed those sentences mentally throughout the week leading to the draft, often with apprehension. Now, he could replay them confidently, mocking his own doubt.

But as Williams settles into his new home and line of work, there is a new set of questions that rehash Armstrong's concern about the union of Williams and Chicago being too good to be true. Williams is an exciting, up-tempo point guard being plopped into the plodding triangle offense that coach Bill Cartwright says he won't abandon. Williams works best with the ball in his hands, but so does Bulls centerpiece Jalen Rose.

Then there's the mantle of greatness that defines Chicago basketball -- the legacy of Michael Jordan -- an ineluctable burden of comparison that Williams prefers to avoid. And there's the simple task in which all the questions about the Williams-Bulls partnership are wrapped: turning around a team that won 66 games in the last four seasons. No pressure, Jay.

"We'll work out everything when the time comes," Williams says. "Now, I'm just happy to be here."

Within the story of how Williams wound up here, how he fell in love with Chicago, how he dealt with the possibility of his Bulls dream falling apart and how he celebrated when it became a reality, there are clues to Williams' ability to handle such a heavy load.

Maybe this is too good to be true. But in a city left with few sports icons since Jordan's retirement and for a franchise desperately short on excitement, maybe too good to be true is exactly what is needed.

As pictured above, Jay Williams is featured on the cover of the July 8 issue of The Sporting News. Read Sean Deveney’s entire article by clicking here now.