Lucas: Taking A (Fast) Break

By Adam Lucas

It's not easy to shop for Roy Williams.

The Carolina head coach has often observed that when he had no money, he had to pay full price for everything. Now that he has some money, people want to give him things. It's one of those strange realities of being a public figure in 2017.

But there's one particularly easy way to give Williams exactly what he wants. Looking for a way to thank him for what he's done for Tar Heel basketball over the last 14 seasons, which have included three national championships? Like the way he runs the Carolina program, with alums regularly returning to help mentor the current team? Enjoy the fact that the Tar Heels are regular participants in the Chapel Hill community, raising thousands of dollars for area causes?

The answer is simple: buy a ticket to his annual Fast Break Against Cancer breakfast, which will be held on Monday morning, Oct. 2. As per tradition, the event takes place on the same day the Tar Heels open practice.

For 24 days in 2012, Williams thought he had malignant tumors on his kidney. They turned out to be benign, and surgery solved the problem. But the head coach realizes not everyone is so lucky, and that's when the breakfast—now in its 13^th year—took on even more significance for him.

Over the course of the last dozen years, the event has raised $2.3 million for cancer research. It's a one-day event, but Williams' involvement goes much deeper than just Monday morning. He helps pick the keynote speaker (this year, it's Judge Carl Fox, who beat cancer after being given three months to live) and plans his own remarks. The breakfast is usually the first and most candid way to hear the coach's assessment of his upcoming team.

And as he mentally went down his Fast Break checklist this week, Williams realized he had another task left to do. "I've got to go through the house with Wanda," he said, "and find one more auction item."

The auction is an annual highlight, with one of a kind UNC basketball experiences. And the coach isn't kidding—he really has been known to auction items right off his own den walls if it means a few extra thousand dollars for the cause.

Williams began the breakfast as a nice way to use the start of the season to make a difference in the community. Since then, he's watched close family and friends deal with cancer, a process that has only made him more determined.

"The numbers are staggering about who has been touched in some way by cancer," he says. "If you haven't yet, it will happen. And if you look at the numbers, the success rate of surgeries and early detection is getting better and better. We have to make people aware of how effective early detection can be."

It's a busy time of year. It's a hectic recruiting period, and Williams is putting final preparations together for the first practices of a 2018 team that includes seven newcomers plus an eighth, KJ Smith, who will sit out as a transfer. But as is tradition, he won't take the court for the first time until he spends the morning raising some money.

"I get some attention because I'm fortunate enough to be at North Carolina," he says, and his eyes moisten as he talks about it. "When you win every now and then, people listen to you—and I don't think I'm worth listening to me any more than someone else. But if I can use that platform for one thing, I'd want them to understand how meaningful this is to me."

Fans can purchase tickets, full tables, or view the auction items here.

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