North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams absolutely ripped into ESPN for referring to players as “Green Room Guys.”
Everyone knows the issue with college basketball having guys bolt after a year for the NBA. It’s just one of the things that comes with the sport and the coaches don’t like it anymore than the rest of the people that think players should stay in for as long as possible.
Recently during ESPN broadcasts, announcers and analysts have been referring to players as “Green Room Guys” during games. These are the players that are likely to be top picks and will be highly sought after in the draft.
While everyone knows the reality of where these players are going, it’s a bit offensive to the coaches that are trying to keep them and continue to build their careers to have to hear their players being hyped up to no end.
North Carolina Tar Heels coach Roy Williams is tired of ESPN and Chad Ford referring to his players as “Green Room Guys” and went on absolute rant and tirade talking about it.
The rant about the words being used for his players and others around basketball begins at the 12-minute mark and Williams doesn’t hold back any punches about what he really thinks of the way that his players are being presented to the audience.
The News and Observer’s Andrew Carter transcribed a portion of the rant by Williams against ESPN and their word usage to describe players.
"“I think ESPN is (an ACC) partner, and I’ve got to watch on TV where somebody’s college basketball game and they’re talking about the freaking green room? That’s the most ridiculous thing. And that’s one of my partners? That’s half the damn broadcast: ‘Well, so-and-so’s in the green room.’“And this is a great time for me to be saying something about it. Because they ain’t mentioning any of my guys, OK. But God almighty, you’re sitting there, you’re trying to win championships, and here it is, January, and ESPN’s talking about some green room and some Chad Ford or who it is and his (draft projections) – that’s the most ridiculous thing we’re having to put up with in college basketball.”“I think ESPN is (an ACC) partner, and I’ve got to watch on TV where somebody’s college basketball game and they’re talking about the freaking green room? That’s the most ridiculous thing. And that’s one of my partners? That’s half the damn broadcast: ‘Well, so-and-so’s in the green room.’“And this is a great time for me to be saying something about it. Because they ain’t mentioning any of my guys, OK. But God almighty, you’re sitting there, you’re trying to win championships, and here it is, January, and ESPN’s talking about some green room and some Chad Ford or who it is and his (draft projections) – that’s the most ridiculous thing we’re having to put up with in college basketball.”"
Clearly Williams has had enough of the stigma that is being pushed onto basketball players in college basketball. Williams has coached for decades and knows the reality of the situation with players leaving early for the NBA. He also knows that ESPN hyping them up to no end and using cliched terms won’t help the situation of players leaving early at all.