Deron Williams is Underdog

by james on October 22nd, 2007

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Deron can handle the rock

Deron Williams is an up and coming star in the NBA.

That bears repeating, because for those of us that followed his career at Illinois, it did not always seem that way.

Now your intrepid author is a Michigan State University Spartan fan and grad. Izzo, baby, that is all that needs to be said. MSU finds themselves as a basketball school and oh do we not like that label. We want to be a basketball, football school.

Well, guess what, Illinois finds themselves in the same boat. There were some intense rivalry games between IU and MSU and Deron Williams was a part of quite a few of them.

In college, Deron seemed like an excellent passer, kind of fast, but not too quick, pretty good shooter, but not great. He played next to Dee Brown and Dee seemed to have all the star power in the year they went to the finals with only 1 loss.

Alan Anderson of the Spartans got hurt before the North Carolina game, during the weekend when my Spartys beat UK and Duke. The feeling around here, right or wrong, was that the Spartans would have beaten NC with a healthy Anderson and faced Deron Williams and the Illini in the finals.

That did not happen and NC defeated Illinois. Deron was only a Junior but pretty much had to declare pro with most of the Illinois graduating. There would not have been much team left and it could only hurt his draft status to stay.

Prediction for the Jazz

Who would have thought Deron would be such a great pro? With Deron at the point Johnny Ludden at Yahoo Sports is picking Utah to be first in the NorthWest Division.

Is that confetti in your hair? After an impressive run to the Western Conference finals, the Jazz made only a couple of minor tweaks to their roster. Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, quickly resembling another formidable Utah pick-and-roll combo, anchor the team’s impressive core. Mehmet Okur is coming off an All-Star season and second-year guard Ronnie Brewer is making a strong bid to start. source

The NBA Draft

Deron is used to being the underdog and when he faced the NBA draft, once again Deron Williams had to prove himself to the doubters.

When it was time for Deron to take his collection of All-Big Ten awards and the ’05 Chicago Regional MOP trophy to The Greatest Show on Earth, he found that he had some believers out there. While some questioned his build and speed, Deron blew up during pre-Draft workouts, impressing the Jazz enough that they tabbed him with the third overall pick. Bigger-rep players Raymond Felton and Chris Paul followed.

Underdog

If Utah makes it a habit of winning all the time then that will probably cure the underdog stuff up with Deron and the fans, right?

Though his ball club is on the verge of regaining their once West Coast dominance, the playmaker can’t see the dim light raying on him any different. “People still don’t know my name. I go to [visiting] arenas, sometimes the announcers will call me Duh-RON. I have to make the PR people go and correct them,” he says. “So although a lot more people notice my game now, I still consider myself an underdog.”

Oh, well, if Deron is Underdog at least they have a movie about you!

NBA Basketball Fan Question Will Deron be an All Star this year?

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alan anderson, basketball, carlos boozer, dee brown, deron williams, duke, illini, illinois, iu, mehmet okur, michigan state university, msu, nba, nc, ronnie brewer, uk, utah jazz

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