UNC Basketball: Hall-of-Fame head coach sounds off on Kessler decision

Hall-of-Fame head coach Jim Boeheim didn’t mince words when talking about former UNC basketball player Walker Kessler and his decision to enter the NCAA transfer portal.

It’s been nearly two weeks since freshman center Walker Kessler shocked the North Carolina basketball program and its fans with news of his imminent departure from the team as he enters the NCAA transfer portal.

Now, Kessler’s former head coach, Roy Williams, has announced his own departure from the program. There had been some speculation about it in recent weeks, but the 70-year-old Hall-of-Famer made his retirement official on Thursday morning, ending a 48-year career in the profession, 28 of which he spent at the University of North Carolina.

It’s difficult to reason that the two events aren’t related, particularly when Williams himself addressed the topic of the NCAA transfer portal and the effects that it ultimately had on his decision to retire. Having said that, Kessler’s transfer certainly wasn’t the only factor, or even the main one, that caused Williams to walk away from the game of basketball.

He said as much in his final press conference Thursday afternoon, noting that he considered retirement following the 2020 season, well before Kessler ever put on a Carolina uniform. It may simply have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for Williams.

Regardless of its true impact, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim referenced the Kessler transfer in an interview with Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel on Thursday afternoon, stating that he couldn’t understand why the rising 7-footer would leave UNC when he had a good opportunity to be a star there next season.

"“Why Walker Kessler would leave there is beyond me,” Boeheim told Thamel. “He’s going to get the ball 25 times a game there. It’s just wounded pride. That’s crazy.”"

Thamel elaborated on the Kessler transfer, and how it may have helped push Roy Williams to ultimately retire rather than dive deeper into an era of college sports that he simply wasn’t prepared to acclimate to at this juncture in his career.

"“It’d be unfair to overstate how the the transfer of freshman 7-footer Walker Kessler impacted Williams’ decision to retire,” Thamel wrote. “He was a top-25 prospect who sources have indicated could end up at Gonzaga or Auburn. (The Zags are the favorite.) Kessler’s player narrative a decade ago would likely have been that he took his lumps as a freshman — zero starts and 8.8 minutes per game — and eventually developed into a star at UNC. But the incentive of being able to transfer without penalty has him seeking greener pastures.”"

Williams gave his thoughts on the current state of the NCAA’s transfer portal in a March interview with 247Sports, making more clear his decision to retire, and the comments that he made in front of current and former players, as well as media at the Dean Smith Center on Thursday evening.

Williams talked about how college basketball used to be something that once required fighting through adversity and sticking with it, rather than just jumping ship when things don’t go exactly as planned. He talked about his experience with younger players becoming better and better throughout their college experience, and the relationships built during that process.

Williams was clear on one thing: he didn’t like the transfer rule that the NCAA put into place this year. “I think it will be the most significant piece of legislation that’s ever happened in college basketball,” Williams stated, noting that he didn’t like it, and acknowledging that we’re in a generation of college sports dissimilar to the one he made a career in.

It’s difficult to imagine watching a North Carolina basketball game next season without Roy Williams on the sideline, but we better get used to the idea of it. That time has come, and there’s nothing we can do to change it.

Williams felt the same way about this new era of college basketball, so he decided to bow out gracefully rather than drudge through something that he loves but can no longer recognize.

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