University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: New Honor For Sweet-Shooting MOPs
November 4, 2009 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Nov. 4, 2009
By Adam Lucas
Don't worry, perplexed Tar Heel fans. Wayne Ellington was just as confused as you were.
One of the trademark features of Carolina Basketball are the retired and honored jerseys that hang from the Smith Center rafters. To look at those names is to take a tour through the best of a century of Tar Heel hoops.
But with regard to one specific honor, the exact criteria for earning jersey recognition has always been a little muddy. Most valuable players of a national championship team did qualify for an honored jersey--but that's the MVP as selected by the team in postseason awards, not the more commonly recognized Most Outstanding Player award given by the NCAA.
At least, that's how it used to be. Now, thanks to changes that were put into motion on the team flight home from Detroit this past April, winning MOP is a new standard. That means two new Tar Heels--Donald Williams (the 1993 MOP) and Wayne Ellington (2009 MOP)--will soon have a new place in the rafters.
"Having my jersey up there is something I've thought about ever since I decided to go to Carolina," Ellington said. "I've always wanted to accomplish it. To go to Carolina and be one of those players with his name up there is a huge honor."
Despite his longstanding aspirations, Ellington wasn't familiar with the requirements until his standout performance in Detroit. After his 19-point performance in the championship game, friends and family began to ask him if the Most Outstanding Player qualified him for the rafters.
His response? "I'm not sure."
For many years, fans weren't sure, either. The difference between the team-voted MVP and the NCAA-awarded MOP was fine enough to cause some confusion. George Lynch was voted the MVP of the '93 team for his leadership throughout the championship season. That moved him into the exalted territory while Williams, who scored 25 points in each Final Four game in '93, was not.
Especially in recent years, there's been an undercurrent of support for Williams to move into the rafters. When Ellington duplicated his feat--helping carry a team to a title while not otherwise meeting the criteria--serious discussions began almost immediately among UNC administrators.
The final decision--ACC Player of the Year was added in addition to Final Four Most Outstanding Player--was made over the summer, but the players weren't officially notified until recently. Ellington received a phone call from Roy Williams. Donald Williams found out in person when the head coach pulled him aside at September's professional alumni game.
"He said he wanted to let me know personally that they had changed the guidelines and my jersey would be honored," Donald Williams says. "I was totally surprised and overwhelmed. He was sitting right beside Michael Jordan and Coach Smith, and all three of them were smiling like they were so happy for me."
Donald Williams, a Garner native who says someone mentions 1993 to him "every day," admits he doesn't remember much about the first couple minutes of the alumni game.
"I sat down and I started thinking about where mine would be going," he says. "I looked up at all those jerseys, and to think that mine would be up there, especially for someone like me who is local, it's really big for me."
The honor means the '93 team (Lynch, Montross, Williams) and '09 team (Ellington, Lawson, Hansbrough) each have three players represented in the rafters. All five Tar Heel championship teams each have three players honored--the '57 team has Lennie Rosenbluth, Tommy Kearns and Pete Brennan; the '82 team has James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Michael Jordan, and the '05 team has Sean May, Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants. Three different non-title teams have had four players represented--'76, '84 and '94.
The two MOPs, who have met on a handful of occasions, are at different stages of their basketball careers. Williams is breaking into coaching and will spend this season as the head coach at St. Mary's School in Raleigh. Ellington is with the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he is coming off the bench but averaging the fifth-most minutes on the roster.
At some point very soon, however, they'll be connected by the ultimate Carolina basketball honor.
"It's more than just about me," says Donald Williams, who has three daughters. "It's about my family and a whole community. That's something you can say for every player who is up there. They were great basketball players, but they were great off the court, too. That goes back to Coach Smith, and that's what Carolina is all about."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of five books on Carolina basketball, including the just-released book on the 2009 national title, One Fantastic Ride. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
