Nick Collison’s mom, Judy, and dad, Dave, summoned their son to a hallway of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Chesapeake Energy Arena after a recent playoff game against the Utah Jazz.
“We have a surprise visitor for you,” Judy informed the 37-year-old, 15-year NBA veteran, also the second-leading scorer and third-leading rebounder in University of Kansas basketball history.
The guest, Collison discovered soon enough, was his former college coach, Roy Williams, the current head coach at North Carolina.
“I was sort of hiding behind the corner. He had a big smile on his face. It was really neat,” former Jayhawks coach Williams told The Star on Thursday in a phone interview held the day Collison announced his retirement from the NBA.