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With Allen Iverson in the news for his reported off-the-court issues, Georgetown’s Jerome Williams shares a fact about Allen Iverson that most people don’t know. Williams also talks about his time with the Hoyas, his favorite moment in college and his reaction to the nickname “Junk Yard Dog.” (run time 8:19; transcript below).

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Lost Lettermen: This is Jose Bosch from LostLettermen.com and I’m joined by Georgetown’s Jerome Williams, member of the 1996 Elite Eight team and head of the JYD Project, a non-profit organization that raises and initiates money for service programs around the country. Mr. Williams thank you very much for joining us today.

You played on two very good teams, a Sweet 16 run and an Elite Eight run, just what was that like being a part of not only two very good teams in those two years but a part of an institution in college basketball that was Georgetown and John Thompson?

Jerome Williams: That was a tremendous experience for me. I really look back on my career in college and say “Wow, you really made some huge accomplishments.” Being the leading rebounder in the Big East, being one of the toughest players to come out of Georgetown and graduate were huge accomplishments.

I had the opportunity to play with guys like George Butler and Victor Page. You know Allen Iverson everybody knows. … Daymond Jackson, Othella Harrington. There were so many great players that not only had the history of the school with Patrick Ewing and Dikembe (Mutombo) and Alonzo Mourning, but the guys that were in my class, we ultimately had a few pros like Jahidi White, who made it, and a great incoming freshman class when I was a senior that really propelled our team.

And I’m surprised we didn’t get as far as the Final Four, but we did make it to the Elite Eight. And I do have a Georgetown Big East Championship ring that I’m pretty proud off.

LL: As everyone knows, you did get to play along with Allen Iverson. I know for basketball fans just watching him play and score the way that he could was amazing. As a teammate did you kind of sometimes have to fight just standing in awe and watching him do his thing on the court?

JW: Well you were always having that battle. The guy was amazing. He could do things with the basketball that just really were unbelievable. And I had the opportunity to play with so many great players throughout my career. Allen was probably the first of a long list of very talented guys where you just wake up and think, “Wow, this guy is amazing.”

The next person that comes to mind is Vince Carter. Vince Carter was a huge, huge stand and watch guy. And I put him with Allen Iverson in doing quite extraordinary things that really take your breath away.

LL: Iverson is an interesting figure and a lot of people have different opinions of him but having played with him as a teammate, what’s one thing about him that you think not very many people in the public know?

JW: He’s an artist. The first thing that comes to my mind is coming into the locker room before big games and before the coaches had chance to put up the game plans on the chalk board, and Allen drawing caricatures of our team, his teammates on the board, in cartoon.

And I mean he could really draw and he’d have us cracking up. I remember he drew a picture of Jahidi White with his belly out, holding a hamburger. I mean talk about breaking the ice before the game and getting everybody laughing. John Thompson, when he came in and looked at it, he had a good chuckle too.

But just doing things like that. That’s something that probably nobody knows, but if you give him a pencil and a paper, he can really draw. I remember he drew pictures of me one time and one of my other teammates, who was from Africa – he drew him with a Tarzan suit and a spear. And I mean he just created things like that and making people laugh. He always had a thing for making people laugh.

LL: You know you spend your time at Georgetown. Again just a great time, it sounds like not only on the court but off the court. What’s your best memory you got from your time spent there?

JW: Probably my best memory of Georgetown was actually graduating. Graduation day was just a huge culmination of choices and decisions I had made throughout my life that really came to an end of the ultimate goal of graduating from college. And I was the first person in my family to graduate from college.

That was a huge step, that was a huge accomplishment and I felt like my whole family contributed to that. I’m really blessed and honored to say that I had good advisers while I was at Georgetown. John Thompson and Mary Finland did an outstanding job, just really caring that the players did their work, that the players went to class, that the players … it was 50 percent basketball but 100 percent education. And John Thompson told me when I first got to school that if I wasn’t coming to graduate; there was no sense in coming to Georgetown.

He was the only college coach that I met with that even said I had to go to class. And I really look back at that and see that as a shining moment in graduating because once I got to the NBA, I noticed how many players not only didn’t go to class but didn’t graduate from school.

So I saw the value in having a coach and an athletic/academic adviser that cared enough that we weren’t just athletes on the basketball court making millions of dollars for the university.

LL: I’d kick myself if I didn’t ask you, so I apologize. This will be truly the last question. What was your first reaction when you go the nickname “Junk Yard Dog”?

JW: My first reaction, I guess. You know what, I’m the type of thinker that just sat back and kind of thought about it and they said, “You’re the Junk Yard Dog” and I sort of sat there and said to myself, “Well, I was a Hoya bulldog.” And being a Hoya bulldog … anything with dog attached to it kind of just makes sense.

So I didn’t scarf at it at all. I kind of just thought like “I guess they look at me as a scrapper.” And as a rookie I was kind of happy they were calling me anything that was positive because it could’ve been a lot worse. It could’ve been a lot worse and it kind of, it got me on the court.

So my first reaction was to sit back and kind of be like “OK.” I didn’t lash out and say “No, no, no.” I just sat back and said “Man, that might work. I gotta think about that for a minute.”

I continue to let them call me Junk Yard Dog.

LL: Well Mr. Williams it’s been a pleasure talking with you. I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. I understand you’re very busy. So thank you very much for speaking with us today.

JW: No problem. Thank you for having me on Lost Lettermen. Georgetown University is in the house and everybody check out jydproject.com.

Got a question or comment? E-mail him here

All Jerome Williams Interviews

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