A dream called White Chocolate

Have you ever ate White Chocolate? Well, if you haven’t you should try and let me know because it’s nothing like regular chocolate. It looks pale because of his composition, even if the making process it’s exactly the same. It was invented in Switzerland, not in the US, but at the other side of the ocean there was a kid, born in West Virginia, who played so sweet that he was called White Chocolate.

Last week we’ve been at Oak Hill Academy, in Virginia, and this time we move to West Virginia. Five miles from Charleston, there’s the DuPont High School, an unknown school which in 1994 reaches the state finals of basketball thanks to two kids that Nike will use for a future advertise: Jason Williams and Randy Moss, known as The Mossiah.

They are friends and they play other sports and maybe that’s why years later Will will pass like a proper NFL quarterback. And just like at Oak Hill, also in Dupont City kids used to escape from the prison by the Appalachian footpaths.

After high school, he managed to get to Providence and Marshall University, where he had a tremendous rookie year under Billy Donovan. The coach became so important to him that he decided to follow him to Florida, forcing himself to be a Redshirt. Basically, he could attend classes and exams but not play any official game.

In the next season, Jason had unbelievable stats averages and an incredible game against the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington when he had 17 assists. The next year, though, Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem arrived and he was suspended after failing two drug tests.

In 1998 J-Will was mesmerizing every time he was on the parquet, like a magician with a basketball. He was drafted in the same year with the seventh pick by the Sacramento Kings. Here Stephanie Shepard, media relations assistant of the franchise, called him White Chocolate for the very first time, because of his incredible style of play. Jason will tattoo these words on his hands. He’s always in ESPN’s Sports Center’s top 10, every time with an unseen play. At 2000’s All Star Weekend, during the rookie v freshmen game, he did a fast-break elbow-pass to Raef LaFrentz that NBC replays over and over for five minutes.

Williams is Chris Webber perfect co-pilot and with Vlade Divac, Peja Stojakovic and Doug Christie the take the Kings to playoffs for three years in a row, but always losing against the Lakers. With his creative genius, it comes also a little bit of madness and risk and Jason wasn’t behaving in those years. He’s repeatedly found positive to Marijuana and forced to attend a mandatory counseling program. Kings decided to trade him to Memphis.

In those years the Pyramid Arena was always empty, but after 4 or 5 Jason’s games you couldn’t find an available seat. His play style begun to modify, as he wasn’t looking for the difficult play as he used to, but he was more concentrated on leading the game and his teammates. But he still could turn on and off the light from the pitch whenever he would.

Hubie Brown and Mike Fratello couldn’t build a team around him to became contenders, and in 2005 he leaves Pau Gasol and the Memphis Grizzlies, arriving at Pat Riley’s Miami Heat, with Dwyane Wade and Shaq. In Florida he reached the NBA Finals for the first time, winning the Larry O’Brien Trophy at the end of the season.

Maybe if he had less drug issues, he would have become champions sooner and with a more important role in the team. He has many tattoos and, among others, one representing an eye. He always said that was the reason he was able to pass lie he used to. But many of his plays are still inexplicable, like the Dishes Off Pass technique. If you’re a point guard and you love basketball, his plays will conquer your soul. But you must always remember, there will always be just one White Chocolate.