HoopsHype.com Rumors

Josh Robbins: As expected, Pat Williams will be on stage for the #Magic during the @NBA draft lottery on May 21. Twitter @JoshuaBRobbins

Orlando Magic, Draft, Pat Williams 

When he was diagnosed with cancer, Pat Williams had two choices. The one-time Bulls general manager could sit around feeling sorry for himself and spend every waking moment thinking about having multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Or he could continue with his busy life working with the Orlando Magic basketball team, writing books and jetting around the nation giving inspirational speeches. “The doctors said, ‘Go live your life, we’ll tuck the medical stuff around it,’ ” Williams said Thursday. “I don’t even think about it. I talk here, go home (Thursday night), we have a daughter graduating college on Friday, I have a talk to give in Orlando Sunday morning, etc. I don’t have time to think about (cancer), and that’s the way it should be.” Southtown Star

Pat Williams 

What made Dwight Howard change his mind last summer after he said in March he wanted to stay with the team? Pat Williams: “Dwight is a pleaser at heart. Deep down he really is a good guy. He had a lot invested here in eight years out of Central Florida and I think the pressure got to him. It was building and building and building. It was trade, trade and trade. As we got to the trade deadline, I think Dwight was just panic-stricken. Where was this all going to lead? The simplest way was just going to be sign this extension. I don’t think his agent had anything to do with it. I don’t think anyone would have advised him that because it was just a few months from free agency, and I just think the pressure was so great that the safest way to break it was just to sign the one-year extension and take the pressure off, and he made a little press conference and a little speech saying, ‘I love Orlando.’ Then, the next thing you know, this back injury takes place and then he disappears and we never saw him or hear from him again until the middle of the summer. We did meet with him and went out to see him and tried to convince him to stay. … It made no headway. It was not on his agenda and it turned out Brooklyn was his first choice. That all didn’t work, and finally the L.A. trade. Now he’s still a free agent after this year, so who knows what’s going to happen or where he is headed next?” Sports Radio Interviews

Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magic, Free Agency, Trade, Dwight Howard, Pat Williams 

But perhaps as much as anyone, Pat Williams saved pro basketball in Chicago. It was in critical condition and facing a sporting last rites when Williams came to the Bulls to play promoter, cheerleader, innovator and executive. The result was the first great run of pro basketball in Chicago after some half dozen pro franchises had folded or left the city. The NBA’s early 1960s Packers changed their name to the Zephrys and then moved to Baltimore. Who leaves Chicago to go to Baltimore? Yes, the NBA was that close to saying its final goodbye to Chicago in 1969. NBA.com

Chicago Bulls, Pat Williams 

“Pro basketball was in a very tenuous position in Chicago in that 1968-69 period,” said Williams, whom Bulls owners hired to be general manager in the summer of 1969 after a season in which one home game had an official attendance of 891. “Teams had come in over the years and none had made it. Chicago was viewed as a pro basketball graveyard. By 1968, it was again teetering big time. Fan interest was low. The ownership group was discouraged and was going to make one last effort.” NBA.com

Chicago Bulls, Pat Williams 

It was, of course, as Motta got into damaging feuds that led Walker to retire early and led to crippling holdouts by the likes of Love and Van Lier. The team began to break down and come apart after that 1975 playoff loss to the Warriors, and though there were brief flurries of interest with the 1977 team with Artis Gilmore and Sloan’s coached 1981 team, it wasn’t until Jordan’s arrival in 1984 that basketball began to soar again in Chicago. But if not for Williams in 1969, it might have been grounded even before it took off. “That team of Walker, Love, Boerwinkle, Sloan (and later Van Lier) put in the foundation for Chicago that this is going to be a pro basketball city and not just baseball, football and hockey,” said Williams. “To this day when I’m on the road to speak, old timers from Chicago will have vivid memories of that team. The thoughts were basketball wouldn’t work in Chicago. But that thinking evaporated and Chicago was an NBA town of good standing.” NBA.com

Chicago Bulls, Pat Williams 

David Baumann: #Magic SrVP @Pat Williams tells me he envisions this for @Jameer Nelson: "I think he's got 'coach' written all over him at some point." Twitter

Orlando Magic, Jameer Nelson, Pat Williams 

David Baumann: #Magic's @Pat Williams on @Jameer Nelson: "He'll have a long career afterwords in coaching, if he so desires. I can see that for him." Twitter

Orlando Magic, Jameer Nelson, Pat Williams 

Magic VP Pat Williams reports that he is doing "wonderful" and winning his battle against multiple myeloma, booting it into remission. Williams, 72, was diagnosed with the disease early in 2011. Pat has reached yet another milestone in his long career. He joked that this June marked "50 straight years that I've been getting a paycheck" from a pro sports team. Orlando Sentinel

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

David Baumann: Sources say Kareen Abdul-Jabbar (@Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) checked into Grand Bohemian Fri, but @Pat Williams said he was unaware of any #Magic connection. Twitter

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 

David Baumann: "Alex (Martins) has said his phone has been ringing off the hook. There won't be a shortage of candidates," #Magic's Pat Williams told me. Twitter

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

David Baumann: Pat Williams on Adonal Foyle: "He has been working hard. He wants to pursue a front office job." PW unsure if Foyle will be considered 4 GM. Twitter

Orlando Magic, Adonal Foyle, Pat Williams 

David Baumann: Just had great conversation with #Magic Exec. Pat Williams who told me, "No," when I asked if Dwight will have say in new GM and/or coach. Twitter

Orlando Magic, Coaching, Dwight Howard, Pat Williams 

David Baumann: "No," Pat Williams said after I asked if Dwight Howard will hand pick new #Magic GM/coach. "Alex (Martins) has made that abundantly clear." Twitter

Orlando Magic, Coaching, Dwight Howard, Pat Williams 

Orlando Magic senior vice president Pat Williams, who helped found the franchise in 1989, said Monday he would like to see star center Dwight Howard and coach Stan Van Gundy both remain with the franchise for a long time. Williams said restoring the team's health and winning would do a lot to help the franchise move past recent turmoil, capped when Van Gundy last week said that Howard wanted him fired. The coach and the star later met with Magic general manager Otis Smith, agreeing to co- exist the rest of the season and put the team first. "Finish well and then have a wonderful run in the playoffs -- that would probably cure most of the issues," Williams told The Associated Press before a scheduled speaking appearance at Michigan State University. ESPN.com

Orlando Magic, Coaching, Dwight Howard, Otis Smith, Stan Van Gundy, Pat Williams 

Williams said Van Gundy would admit that he can sometimes be too negative. And he said that while Howard has "grown up a lot" there is still room for maturation on his end. "I think this shook them both up -- that's my opinion," Williams said of the incident last week. "I think they're going to be better for it." ESPN.com

Orlando Magic, Coaching, Dwight Howard, Otis Smith, Stan Van Gundy, Pat Williams 

Orlando Magic senior vice president Pat Williams would like to see star center Dwight Howard and coach Stan Van Gundy both remain with the franchise long-term. Williams said Monday that restoring the team's health and a deep playoff run would do a lot to help the team move forward. Williams spoke with The Associated Press before addressing a function at Michigan State Univers SI.com

Orlando Magic, Coaching, Dwight Howard, Stan Van Gundy, Pat Williams 

Brian Schmitz: Dwight Howard's other side: Meeting with kid who was hit by car and paralyzed from neck down outside lockeroom before game. Twitter

Orlando Magic, Coaching, Dwight Howard, Stan Van Gundy, Pat Williams 

Pat Williams on the reports that Howard has the say in coaching decisions: “Vehemently denied by our organization. No truth to that at all. We would never cede that kind of power to a player and I can’t imagine a player even wanting it. That would be a real mess for him.” Sports Radio Interviews

Orlando Magic, Coaching, Dwight Howard, Stan Van Gundy, Pat Williams 

Pat Williams removes the black brimmed hat, something that appears to be from the Indiana Jones Collection, with a bit of Tyrolean mixed in, and reveals the remaining wisps of white hair along his head at ear level. It is Friday of All-Star weekend. More importantly, it is 13 months since Williams, the Magic's senior vice president, was diagnosed with cancer of the bone marrow cells and exactly two weeks since stem-cell surgery. He had only been released from the hospital a few days earlier. "I got out of the hospital Tuesday morning at 6:30 a.m.," Williams explains. "[The doctor] let me out. I made a speech that morning to a Boy Scout group. And that afternoon, Tuesday, the phone rings. It's Jerry Colangelo saying, 'I'm calling to break the news to you. Here's what's happened.'" NBA.com

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams