Bedeviled

Tomorrow night Jay Williams is scheduled to make his first appearance at Chicago’s United Center since the Bulls guard was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in June.

This would have been Williams’ second NBA season, but now he is just visiting. His teammates have not seen him since the accident, and it will be an emotional occasion. Once hyped to the max after joining the Bulls as the No.2 pick in the 2002 draft, Williams will sit on the bench in street clothes watching his team play the latest big thing, LeBron James, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. When Williams will return to the court is anyone’s guess.

If Bobby Hurley has anything to do with it, it will be later rather than sooner.

“Just take your time and get yourself together” was the essence of Hurley’s message to Williams when the two met recently.

As former All-American point guards from Duke who grew up in New Jersey, won national championships, had their numbers retired and became high NBA draft picks, Hurley and Williams have a lot in common. Too much, it turns out.

Hurley was nearly killed in an automobile accident Dec.12, 1993. He had been the No.7 pick in the NBA Draft, the Sacramento Kings’ point guard of the future. Nineteen games into his rookie season, Hurley was leaving Arco Arena after a home game when his Toyota 4Runner was broadsided by a station wagon. He was not wearing a seatbelt and flew 100 feet into a ditch.

Hurley recovered, but his NBA career was inexorably altered.

Now Williams is facing the same reality.

Known by his given name, “Jason,” until he left Duke after three seasons, Williams bought a red-and-black Yamaha R6 motorcycle six months ago. On June19, while riding through Chicago’s north side to a friend’s house, he lost control and slammed into a pole.

The impact severed a main nerve in Williams’ left leg, fractured his pelvis and tore three of the four ligaments in his left knee. He underwent two operations in Chicago, then returned to Durham, N.C., and the Duke Medical Center for grueling, seven-days-a-week rehabilitation.

Williams was quoted as saying that while lying on the ground, he was afraid he was going to die and that he yelled out, “I threw it all away!” Even though he had ridden dirt bikes for a long time and took safety classes, he acknowledged that riding the motorcycle “was a stupid thing to do.”

News of Williams’ mishap triggered flashbacks. Golden State general manager Garry St. Jean, who was Hurley’s coach in Sacramento, said he thought, “Oh my God, here’s another guy from Duke.” Hurley said he hardly thinks of his own accident but couldn’t help recalling it when he heard about Williams.

“It brought back a lot of feelings I had,” said Hurley, who helped Duke win national championships in 1991 and 1992 and holds the NCAA record for career assists. “The things I went through, the bad memories. It brought everything back to being real for me. I always followed Jay’s career, and I want him to do well. He’s from New Jersey. He went to Duke. He was at a camp I spoke at when I was in college. There are a lot of similarities between us.”

Williams has been flooded with support and sympathy from the NBA, from the Duke and college basketball fraternities, from fans and well-wishers worldwide. But Hurley, having been there, was able to offer something else — advice and guidance.

Story Continues →