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Greg Williams Sr. knew when his son, Kam, transferred from Tulane to Kentucky for his sophomore season that it would be a different culture with the Wildcats. However, he was not totally prepared for just how big that impact would be even in the summer months.

“I am going to get a jersey and put ‘Kam’s Dad’ on it. Negative one will be my number because I am not even included now,” Greg Williams laughed and said.

Williams and his wife brought Kam to Lexington and stayed for the basketball camps before heading back to Louisiana.

“My wife and I were not going to the (Father-Son) camp early but we got sent a video and the line was longer than the one at Wal-Mart late at night when you only had one cashier working,” Williams said. “I had never seen so many dads with their sons for a basketball camp.”

When the camp ended, the family went out to eat and Greg Williams thought he picked a restaurant far enough away from campus that no one would pay attention to his son.

“I saw some rumbling with the host in the front but did not pay a lot of attention,” the UK player’s father said. “We ate and then a kid, probably about 16, asked to take a picture with Kam and he took the picture and signed some autographs. When we were leaving the hostess said something about who he was and a guy and lady there took a picture.

“Those people did not want a lot but that 30 seconds could have changed their lives. Kam embraced all of that. He still thinks it is crazy that everybody knows who he is already and wants his picture or an autograph.”

Greg Williams enjoyed watching his son “navigate through life” working at the Father-Son and Father-Daughter Camps hosted by Pope and UK.

“I told him now the patience I asked his big brother (a former college player who now plays overseas) to have with him is the patience he needs to have with these kids now,” Williams Sr. said. “I told him, ‘Let kids shoot and you get the rebound. Don’t squeeze in a shot. Help them be like you.’ Now if one of the dads kind of challenged him, he didn’t show them any mercy. I told him, ‘Do them like you do me.’”

Williams said numerous parents told him about the “great” atmosphere at this year’s camps.

“No disrespect to Cal (John Calipari) but the parents told me they felt like they were more appreciated by the players than even the fans appreciate the players. The players did feel really appreciated taking pictures, signing autographs or just talking with the fans,” Williams, who even did a dance routine with his wife at the Father-Daughter Camp, said.

“(Coach Mark) Pope was able to enjoy about five minutes and then he was signing autographs and the line just got longer and longer. He was signing shirts, basketballs, shoes, and taking pictures with boys and girls. There was a lot of laughing and having fun but Pope also made sure his players were working all the time and really coaching those kids and their fathers.

“(Alabama transfer) Mo Dioubate gave a pep talk and went all the way around the locker room dabbing up kids and their parents. Then you would see (freshman) Jasper (Johnson) do it. Otega (Oweh) was a mega star. He could not eat or walk anywhere without getting mobbed but even my son had a lot of things to sign.”

 

However, no one might be having more fun in this setting than Greg Williams Sr. During his son’s official photo shoot at Kentucky, Pope came in wearing a jacket that Williams Sr. liked. Soon he was “posing and being silly” in the jacket.

“I thought they were playing and not taking pictures,” Williams Sr. said. “Kam came and did things and I was still being silly. I put a headband on. There was a break and I’m doing it again.

“I am playing and they are taking pictures. I was just having fun and would never try to show my son or any player up and then the photos were out. It’s still kind of crazy to think about but I did have fun.”