Jawad Williams Went To School At 6 A.M. To Work

Jawad Williams realized early in his career that to get where he wanted to go- the University of North Carolina, the alma mater of his lifelong hero, Michael Jordan- he needed to outwork everyone else.  Once when he was a freshman in high school, Melvin overheard the basketball coach talking about how early he got to school.  Traffic was bad in that part of Baltimore, so the veteran head coach started getting to school before 6 A.M. to beat the traffic.  He didn't plan on having a companion.  But it wasn't too long before he had a regular carpooler.

"He said he wanted to come with me," Smith says.  "We'd be in here in the morning before the janitors.  We always had to call security and let them know we were in the building so they'd know what was going on.  Melvin did this religiously."

"Guys were in their beds sleeping and I was working, and that was the key," Scott says.  "I had to work on my game and get better."

He was never averse to doing extra work.  Southern had a drill that involved running the length of the court ten times in 1 minute, with five sets of the drill spaced 45 seconds apart.  Completing the running was never a problem for Scott.  It was what he did during the break periods that was strange.  Other players grabbed their shorts or even lay down during their 45 seconds of rest.  Melvin Scott jogged.  And then, when players who had failed to complete the drill had to do it again, he ran with them too.

"All of the rest of the kids saw what was going on," Smith said.  "I told him that if he would always work like that, he would always be ahead of the pack, because no one else was going to work like that."

Pgs 129-130