Illinois Fighting Illini 30 for 30: My Favorite Illinois Men's Basketball Players of My 30-Year Fandom, #2 Deron Williams

6/16/2026

Let's continue with my countdown of my 30 favorite Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players of my fandom, spanning from the 1996-97 season until present day. Here are numbers 30-3.

I woke up early on a Saturday morning in October of 2003, feeling bad not from a Friday night hangover but a broadcast journalism story that I had to get done in the next week.

I wanted to do a story on first year Illinois Head Coach Bruce Weber, detailing his transition from Southern Illinois and the reaction of the current Illini players.

I figured it would be best to try and interview some of Illinois' sophomores, the players who spent one season with Bill Self and were now experiencing the beginnings of year one with Weber.

I suddenly got an idea, involving someone who would ultimately become my second-favorite Illinois men's basketball player of my 30-year fandom.

I decided to email sophomore Deron Williams, who I actually had a sports kinesiology class with at the time at the Krannert Art Museum. Back in the day, you could search up the email addresses of any Illinois student through some computer program at the university.

I ended up pulling up Williams' email address and sent him a quick email, stating that I was a fellow classmate in a class with him who was hoping to do a story on new Head Coach Bruce Weber for a journalism class.

I sent the short email, around 8:30 a.m., figuring I would never hear from Williams.

To my shock, Williams responded within 15 minutes, on a Saturday morning of all days.

"Sure thing," Williams wrote. "See me after Monday's class."

That Monday I waited until after class to talk with Deron, who had gotten in line to speak with the professor.

"Hey Deron," I said to the sophomore point guard. "I emailed you this weekend about doing an interview with you. Thanks for getting back to me."

"Oh, that was you," Deron said. "No problem. It's cool."

"Can we talk Wednesday after class?" I asked.

"Sounds good," Deron responded.

"Great, and thank you," I responded. "I'll see you Wednesday."

Deron nodded his head, and I anxiously waited until Wednesday.

Of course, Deron didn't show up to class that day, leaving me worried that I was not going to get to interview him. As I made my way to my next class, I ironcially ran into Williams, who was sitting on the rectangular slabs outside of Lincoln Hall.

Kind of pissed, I went up to Deron.

"Hey Deron, what happened to our interview today?" I said, my annoyance visible.

"Oh that," Deron replied, smirking. "Well, I didn't go to class today."

"Yeah, no kidding," I responded. "Well, thanks for that."

I walked away thinking that I would never get to interview Deron with that response.

That Friday I showed up to class, with no Williams in sight. At this point I had arranged with U-of-I Sports Information Director Kent Brown to attend the Illinois basketball practice later that afternoon. I figured I would have to interview Weber and a few players there, though I brought my tape recorder just in case.

As I was leaving class, actually one of the last people to get out of the small auditorium, Williams popped his head through the door. With him was Luther Head, who Deron had brought with him.

"He said he would be here," Williams said to Head, referring to me.

"Oh, you're here," I said surprisingly.

"Yeah, I am," Williams responded. "Me and Luther are here to do the interview."

Feeling a sense of relief and gratitude, I pulled out my old tape recorder.

For the next 15 minutes, I interviewed Williams and Head about their experiences with Self and now Weber.

Williams told me something I found shocking, that he never even visited the U-of-I campus until his first day as a student. That's how good of a recruiter Self was. However Illinois fans feel about Self leaving for Kansas, you have to give credit to the former Illini Head Coach for recognizing the greatness in Williams and convincing him to team up with Dee Brown in what looked like it was going to be an unconventional backcourt.

As a student pretending to be a journalist, I was probably not the greatest at asking questions. While Head was patient with me, Williams could be a little dismissive, though I liked his brashness.

After wrapping up the interview, I thanked Deron and Luther for giving me their time and told them that I would be attending practice later that afternoon.

I got to the Illini practice at Ubben Basketball Complex about an hour early. Williams was out there alone, warming up when Weber came up to him and asked him how his grades were. Williams pointed up to me in the balcony, saying that this really smart student was helping him with our kinesiology class. Weber smiled, and I started laughing.

That practice I watched in awe at how much Williams' game had grown in between his freshman and sophomore seasons. As a freshman Williams started at point guard, with Dee Brown playing more off the ball. Williams was definitely more of a facilitator than a scorer as a freshman, leading the Big Ten in assists if my memory serves correct.

However, this Williams I was seeing was a much different player. For a player who was a bit reluctant to shoot as a freshman, Williams was draining three after three. Later that practice, he drove to the basket and soared to the rim, bricking a one-handed dunk attempt that took him out of the bounds. Despite the miss, Williams impressed with his athleticism. I couldn't remember him making a play like that as a freshman.

"This kid is going to be our best player and in the NBA," I thought to myself about Williams.

As an aside, I do remember Head hitting 10 straight threes in a live half-court drill against his teammates, with Assistant Coach Wayne McClain fanning Luther off with his hands.

A few weeks later, the student newspaper The Daily Illini had a column where two sports columnists argued, "Who is going to have a better sophomore season, Dee Brown or Deron Williams?" While Brown was the obvious choice, this one student journalist Mike Swazja stated that Williams was ready for a big jump and would be better. I am not sure if Swazja had seen Williams practice already this season, but I agreed, knowing what I had seen at Ubben.

Williams certainly would make the big jump for Illinois as a sophomore. After breaking his jaw early in the season, Williams would save the Illini during his first game back, an overtime victory against Illinois State. While Illinois struggled to adjust to Weber before breaking through in February, Williams exploded during the second round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament, an ass-whooping of a trash-talking Cincinnati squad.

Apparently after Illinois defeated Murray State in the first round, Cincinnati began trash talking the Illini as both teams passed in the hallways. Basically, the Bearcats were saying they were going to kill the Illini on Sunday, even commenting that "Williams was too pretty to play basketball."

Well, that would prove to be a mistake as Williams would erupt for 30 points and Illinois would embarrass Cincinnati in the second round. The Fighting Illini would lose a tough Sweet Sixteen game to Duke, but the writing was on the wall for the 2004-05 season. Illinois had a chance to be special.

I don't think anyone expected Illinois to dominate like it did in 2004-05, with Williams and the Illini sending a message with a throttling of Chris Paul and #1 Wake Forest early in December of that season. With Williams at the point, feeding Luther Head and Brown for threes, the Illini looked unstoppable.

All season long, Williams ran one of the most beautiful motion offenses I have ever seen, content to sacrifice scoring for assists and defense yet not afraid to take and make a big shot when it called for. As Illinois steamrolled to the #1 overall seed with a 32-1 record after the Big Ten Tournament, Williams had established himself as the Illini's most appealing pro prospect.

Williams' overall greatness was seen throughout the 2005 NCAA Tournament, no much more so than in the biggest games. During the Elite Eight comeback against Arizona, Williams hit an incredible, side-step three to tie the game and took over early in overtime while also making things quite difficult on Arizona senior sharpshooter Salim Stoudamire. During the Final Four, Williams shut down Louisville star Francisco Garcia. During the second half of the national championship game, Williams nearly shot Illinois back to a victory with incredible marksmanship. While Illinois would fall short, 75-70, Williams and his teammates went out putting up a great fight.

After the title game, it was clear Williams was NBA bound, a likely top 5 pick. Williams announced shortly after the season that he was leaving for the professional ranks.

While I was living and working in North Carolina at the time, I sent Williams an email to his school email address, thanking him for the wonderful run. Williams never responded to that email, which I am sure he never saw. :-)

Prior to the 2005 NBA Draft, my childhood buddy Jeff called me about his experiences covering the combine that spring. Jeff had some good insight about Head, saying he had shot the lights out and played his way into the first round. As for Williams, Jeff was less complimentary, saying that Williams came off as too brash for his liking, complaining that Chris Paul didn't want to scrimmage him, the best point guard in the draft.

"That's just Deron," I told Jeff. "He is cocky but in a very good way."

Williams would prove right as Utah ended up selecting him #3 overall, ahead of Paul. For a while during their NBA careers, Williams was as good and even better than Paul.

I'll never forget when Illinois had its Alumni Basketball Game at the Assembly Hall in the fall of 2008. Coming off winning the gold medal in the Summer Olympics, Williams teamed up with Brown, Head, Roger Powell Jr., and Rich Beyers (James Augustine couldn't attend) and absolutely rolled an opposing team of Illini legends featuring Kendall Gill, Frank Williams, Brian Cook, Cory Bradford, Sergio McClain and others.

It was amazing to see how much better Williams was than these Illini legends, how well-connected just 4/5 of the 04-05 Illini team was, as if they had just played together yesterday.

For my money, Deron Williams is the greatest NBA player produced by the University of Illinois. The guy was a silent killer, no-nonsense, never rattled, all about winning, always playing the game at his pace, physical yet athletic.

If I am starting a team of all-time Illini greats, Deron Williams would be my first overall pick, my guy at the point guard spot ahead of Frank Williams, Derek Harper and many greats to play the position.