On a table in the media room of Cameron Indoor Stadium is a colorful, glossy piece of paper.
The front of it has picture of Jason Williams, next to a list of his accomplishments. The back is framed by the covers of all the preseason magazines for which the junior posed, and the center is, creatively titled "the word on Williams," is a list of positive quotes about him.
The idea is that sportswriters do the voting for many national player of year awards, and by hyping up Williams, it will get his name out there and increase his chances of winning.
This is common practice, because the more accolades Williams wins, the better it looks for both him and Duke.
However, after Sunday afternoon's 93-68 drubbing of North Carolina, it looks as if the University is wasting its money.
During his final game at Cameron, Williams dropped 37 on the Tar Heels, shooting 12-for-22, including 8-for-15 from behind the arc. He also added five assists, three steals and a rebound. On the negative side, he missed one of his six free throws, received a technical and had the gall to turn the ball over--once.
If those numbers don't scream national player of the year, nothing will--not the fact he's been pulling stat lines like that all season, nor the fact that he's on pace to be the first player in Duke history to score 2,000 points in three seasons, nor the colorful black pieces of paper--nothing.
"When he's playing his game, we follow his lead," Chris Duhon said. "He's just a great player."
As great as Williams may be, he probably could not have imagined a better way to go out.
With a little over a minute gone in the first half, Williams caught a pass from Dahntay Jones and drained a baseline trifecta from the left side. Two Duke tries later, he hit one from the top of the key. He then dropped a 12-footer about minute later.
"When I prepare and when I become real emotional, I think I do other things, and I think scoring is just a part of that," Williams said after crying on center court when he was announced before the game. "I think tonight was the first time in a while where I've just been outside of myself."
The following possession made it clear that Williams was going to dominate the game. After firing up the crowd with eight straight points, he caught a defensive rebound Nick Horvath had grabbed from a missed hook shot by Kris Lang. A few seconds later he a took a three-pointer slightly left of the key. A frustrated Melvin Scott moved into defend, only to hack Williams right as he nailed the three. After his teammates helped him off the floor Williams sank the free throw too.
That led to the first television timeout with 15:55 left in first half. At that break, Plainfield, N.J., native had 12 of Duke's 18 points.
"He scored more points in this game than I did the second half of my senior year," Krzyzewski said.
Although his scoring was quiet for the next few minutes, the junior hit two more threes, and with 9:04 left, the score was 32-16 and Williams had 18 points.
The chant "Jason's winning" began from the student section.
By the end of the first half, Williams left the floor with 23 points and left the Tar Heels dumbfounded. They had no clue how to stop him.
"Jason Williams had a fitting end to a great career here," Tar Heel coach Matt Doherty said.
Williams came out in the second picking up where he left off, scoring six points on two possessions and gathering 29 with 15:40 left in the game.
A few points and a technical later, he found himself with 37 points and 4:45 seconds left. He was flirting with his career high of 38, or potentially dropping 40.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
He looked up, probably at the scoreboard, and then missed a three, stole the ball and missed a layup. A minute or so later, it was time to come out, and although he didn't hit the 40 mark, he got a standing ovation from the crowd.
"I kinda looked up there, but I could see in his eyes he didn't want 40," said Chris Duhon. "He missed a couple easy layups. I don't know [why], he just didn't want it."
Just like the paper advertisements for national player of the year, whether he wanted it or not is irrelevant. His performance speaks for itself.
Williams did what every star athlete strives to do--go out in style.