Roy Williams’ Wife Had To Jump In To Stop Him From Working With Bob Knight

Before legendary UNC coach Roy Williams began his Hall of Fame career as the head coach of the Tar Heels, he was a member of former coach Dean Smith’s staff for 10 years.

At that time, Smith had built a strong rapport with controversial Indiana coach Bob Knight. During a conversation with SI’s Jon Wertheim on Wednesday, Williams revealed that Knight contacted Smith to ask for help hiring an assistant coach.

“Coach Smith said to Coach Knight, ‘Well, who are you looking for?’” Williams said. “And I think Coach Knight said, ‘Somebody like Roy.’”

How close was the decades-long friendship between Dean Smith and Bob Knight? Yes there were Christmas cards, but also: Smith once offered an assistant, Roy Williams, as a sort of ward to his Bloomington buddy. @jon_wertheim on a classic hoops bromance https://t.co/OiDdH2p8rg

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 2, 2022

Dean Smith then offered to loan Roy Williams to Bob Knight for a year (things were different back then). But when Williams ran the whole thing by his wife, Wanda, it didn’t go over so well.

According to Wertheim, Wanda had just finished the book “Season on the Brink”, which gave an inside-look at the brilliant, but brutal coaching practices Knight used at IU. She told Roy that she wouldn’t support him working for a coach like that, and the deal was off.

“She said, ‘Are you serious?’” Williams recalls.

Roy Williams would end up leaving North Carolina to become the head coach of the Kansas program in 1988. During his time in Lawrence, Williams made the Final Four three times. He would obviously return to Chapel Hill in 2003 — where he won three National Championships.

If Wanda Williams would have never jumped in to stop him from working with Bob Knight, there’s no telling how Roy Williams’ entire career would’ve shaped out.

Perhaps some things are better left unknown…

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