Deron Williams Exclusive Part I Illini

Paul M. Banks’ exclusive with D. Will

One of the best moments of my life, (at least from a biochemical standpoint) was when Deron Williams hit the game tying three-pointer against Arizona (notice the look on Bill Murray and Ron Zook’s faces when this happened) to cap the unthinkable comeback (Illinois was down by 15 points with just 4 minutes to go) in the 2005 Chicago Regional Final game.

The shot heard round Illination tied the game at 80 in the closing seconds. It was the pinnacle moment of the program’s signature season- the “Champaign Campaign” of 2004-05.

Last night, in the come from behind win at Northwestern, Illinois made up a remarkably similar deficit in about the same amount of time in a Chicago suburban venue…obviously the stakes where not as high this time, but Bruce Weber did make the comparison in the post game press conference at Welsh-Ryan.

Basically, the Utah Jazz point guard is to Illinois graduates what Jason Kidd is to Cal-Berkley alums or what Dwyane Wade is to Marquette people. I’ve made a case that D. Will, the highest NBA lottery pick in school history is the best Illini pro player of the modern era.

I recently had an exclusive with him on the night before Christmas Eve. I was proud to be the first to alert D. Will that Illinois won that night, trouncing #25 Mizzou in the “Braggin Rights” game. He asked “Is it over? Did we win?” and when I told him he just said “awesome.” I asked Deron if he’s able to follow the Illini much this season, “A little bit I know we’re 10-1, I haven’t had a chance to catch any games.”

Earlier this year I covered a game where Illini sophomore point guard Demetri McCamey made a sick dribble-drive move and penetrated to the whole, Cames described it as…“that was just something Deron taught me this summer, to get them on your help and when you feel them try to reach, spin right off. Tisdale did a good job of selling and I came right in for a lay-up.”

I told D-Will about this: “I like Demetri a lot as a player. I think he has a chance to be a great point guard and do some special things there, I’m really excited about the next two classes we have coming in, I think we’ll be back at the top of the Big Ten and hopefully be back in the tournament this year.” I then followed up by asking him if shows any more of the players a thing or two when he can. “I try to, it’s tough for me to get back, especially the past couple summers when I’ve been paying with Team USA, I’m gonna try to go back this summer and visit with them- hopefully work on my degree a little bit and finish up, I’m not too far from that, should be fun.”

And on the final Illini-related topic I asked him about was the late September “Illini: Night of Legends.” Deron responded: “I had my dinner the night in Chicago before for my foundation, and had the scholarship endowed in my name.  A great weekend in general, a great experience and capped it all off with the game.”

Part two of this exclusive interview, discussing Chicago 2016 and more, will run tomorrow

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