Bobby Hurley and Jay Williams: From Duke Standouts To NBA Injured List
Duke University has a reputation for producing a countless number of superstar college basketball players. Art Heyman. Johnny Dawkins. Danny Ferry. Elton Brand. J.J. Redick. The list goes on and on.
However, the school is also known for producing several players who've failed to meet expectations in the NBA. Two prime examples are New Jersey born and bred point guards Bobby Hurley and Jason "Jay" Williams.
Both players led the Blue Devils to at least one national championship, but unfortunately both saw their pro careers cut short due to their involvement in near-fatal accidents.
Following a stellar career at Jersey City's St. Anthony High School where he played for his father Bob Sr., Hurley arrived at Duke in 1989.
As a freshman, he started all 38 games and set the school's single-season assist record with 288. He also helped the Blue Devils pull off a 29-9 record and advance to the 1990 NCAA championship game.
Hurley would later team with future NBA All-Stars Christian Laettner and Grant Hill to power Duke to back-to-back national titles in 1991 and 1992 over UNLV and the Michigan "Fab Five" respectively. He was named Final Four MVP in '92.
As a senior, Hurley was voted to the All-American First Team after averaging a career-best 17.0 points and 8.2 assists per contest. However, he wasn't able to reach the Final Four for the fourth straight time, as Duke was upset by Jason Kidd's California Bears, in the second round of the tournament.
Nonetheless, Hurley finished his collegiate career as the NCAA's all-time assists leader with 1076—a record that still stands today—and the most career three pointers made in NCAA Tournament history with 42.
With Hurley donning the Blue and White for four seasons, Duke compiled an amazing 119-26 record and won two ACC titles, one ACC tournament championship, and of course, two national championships.
His days on the collegiate level may have come to a close, but he was now ready to take his talents to the next level.
Hurley was selected by the Sacramento Kings with the seventh overall pick in the 1993 NBA Draft and was expected to play a huge role in rescuing the longtime struggling franchise from the league's basement.
On December 12, 1993, following a home game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Hurley's SUV collided with a station wagon. The Kings rookie, not waring his seat belt, was thrown 100 feet from his vehicle into a ditch and suffered 12 different injuries including collapsed lungs and broken ribs.
Hurley would miss the remainder of the season and finished his 19-game rookie campaign with respectable averages of 7.1 points and 6.1 assists per game. He returned to the court the following season, but just wasn't the same player that he was before the accident.
Hurley had gone from being the centerpiece of the Kings' rebuilding project to a below-average backup point guard.
He would be traded to the Vancouver Grizzlies during the 1997-1998 season, which ended up being his final pro season.
A year later, Williams began his long-anticipated Duke career and like Hurley, became the Blue Devil's starting point guard from the get-go. The McDonald's All-American went on to earn National Freshman of the Year honors after averaging 14.5 points, 6.5 assists, and 4.2 rebounds per game.
As a sophomore, Williams averaged an impressive 21.6 points and 6.1 assists per game and more importantly, led a Duke squad full of future NBA lottery picks—Shane Battier, Mike Dunleavy Jr., and Carlos Boozer—to the 2001 NCAA National Championship.
Williams averaged 21.3 points 5.3 assists per contest in 2001-02 and was named the Consensus National Player of the Year, claiming both the Naismith and Wooden awards. He graduated in just three years and saw his number 22 retired on Senior Day.
Williams closed his legendary career in sixth place on the school's all-time scoring list and led the Blue Devils to a 95-13 record in his 108 games.
With the second overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, Williams was selected by the rebuilding Chicago Bulls. His assignment in the Windy City was to help the young and inexperienced "Baby Bulls" become relevant for the first time since the Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen-led dynasty of the 1990s.
In just his seventh regular-season game, Williams recorded the first triple-double by a Bulls player since Jordan in 1997 by scoring 26 points, grabbing 14 rebounds, and handing out 13 assists against the New Jersey Nets.
Williams started 54 of his 75 games as rookie, battling with fellow point guard Jamal Crawford. Although he didn't put up extremely eye-popping numbers (9.5 points and 4.7 assists per game), Williams was considered to emerge as a superstar down the road with a little more seasoning.
Unfortunately, though, he would never get the opportunity for more seasoning.
On June 19, 2003, Williams slammed his new Yamaha motorcycle into a pole on the North Side of Chicago, causing him to suffer injuries to his leg and pelvic bone.
Williams' never played another game for the Bulls due to his life-threatening injuries and eventually agreed on a $3 million buyout with the team.
He later returned to the league in 2006 signing a non-guaranteed contract with his home state Nets, however, he was released before the regular season began. And just like that, his NBA career was over.
Today, Hurley serves as an assistant basketball coach at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, while Williams is a college basketball analyst for ESPN.
There's probably not a day that goes by, that these two Duke legends don't wonder to themselves what could have been if it wasn't for those accidents.
All-Stars? Hall of Famers?
We'll never know.
