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Freeman Williams

Yeah what a great job. Writing about a player from PSU who turned into a crackhead. Great job John. Last article of his I ever read.
 
viking1985 said:
Yeah what a great job. Writing about a player from PSU who turned into a crackhead. Great job John. Last article of his I ever read.
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No reason to be offended by Canzano. He simply did a story on the greatest basketball player in PSU history and one of the best college scorers of all-time ever. Not like he was making a personal attack on PSU and I don't take it as a reflection on PSU. Mostly I feel sorry for Freeman Williams. He could have done more with his life but like many sports stars and other Americans are broken by their addictions. It is more a statement on American society.
 
VikThunder said:
viking1985 said:
Yeah what a great job. Writing about a player from PSU who turned into a crackhead. Great job John. Last article of his I ever read.
Click to expand...

No reason to be offended by Canzano. He simply did a story on the greatest basketball player in PSU history and one of the best college scorers of all-time ever. Not like he was making a personal attack on PSU and I don't take it as a reflection on PSU. Mostly I feel sorry for Freeman Williams. He could have done more with his life but like many sports stars and other Americans are broken by their addictions. It is more a statement on American society.
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I thought it was a great column. It's better to know, than not to know.

Says a lot about how things have changed. NBA players who haven't stepped on the hardwood in two years blowing more in one night at the shoe show versus what a former player gets in a year for a pension. :-\
 
martymoose said:
VikThunder said:
viking1985 said:
Yeah what a great job. Writing about a player from PSU who turned into a crackhead. Great job John. Last article of his I ever read.
Click to expand...

No reason to be offended by Canzano. He simply did a story on the greatest basketball player in PSU history and one of the best college scorers of all-time ever. Not like he was making a personal attack on PSU and I don't take it as a reflection on PSU. Mostly I feel sorry for Freeman Williams. He could have done more with his life but like many sports stars and other Americans are broken by their addictions. It is more a statement on American society.
Click to expand...

I thought it was a great column. It's better to know, than not to know.

Says a lot about how things have changed. NBA players who haven't stepped on the hardwood in two years blowing more in one night at the shoe show versus what a former player gets in a year for a pension. :-\
Click to expand...

I'm not a big Canzano fan either, but I thought it was a good article. I always wondered what had happened to Freeman over the years, unfortunately he seems to be a troubled man.
 
viking1985 said:
Yeah what a great job. Writing about a player from PSU who turned into a crackhead. Great job John. Last article of his I ever read.
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Wait...Freeman turned into a (temporary) crackhead after several years in the NBA and he never graduated from PSU, so one can hardly blame it on his school. This being said, I don't get why this story had to be published now. It does look a little like PSU demotion. There are enough examples of players of all major league sports whose lives go pear-shaped - that's nothing unusual. The difference is that NBA players nowadays make too much money to end up on the street, no matter how badly they screw up.
 
Freeman was just on the radio with Canzano. After that, Canzano has spent the past 15 minutes asking people to call in and say if they would have given Williams $20 like he did. Seems pretty demeaning to me.

I grew up after he played, but I knew the name Freeman Williams from the time I was is grade school! I really wanted to hear more about the days at PSU, more than 20 seconds about his 81 point game. This guy is one of the greatest athletes in the history of our city, yet most people under 40 don't know who he is. And all Canzano can focus on is $20.

Maybe you guys heard the interview differently than I did. I hope so.
 
jas said:
Freeman was just on the radio with Canzano. After that, Canzano has spent the past 15 minutes asking people to call in and say if they would have given Williams $20 like he did. Seems pretty demeaning to me.

I grew up after he played, but I knew the name Freeman Williams from the time I was is grade school! I really wanted to hear more about the days at PSU, more than 20 seconds about his 81 point game. This guy is one of the greatest athletes in the history of our city, yet most people under 40 don't know who he is. And all Canzano can focus on is $20.

Maybe you guys heard the interview differently than I did. I hope so.
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I didn't hear the interview, but if what you represent is true, then Canzano is garbage. I'll save my final judgement after I hear the interview.
 
I guess to clarify, when Canzano asked people to call and give their opinion about the $20 it was after Williams had hung up the phone. So, it wasn't in front of Freeman, but I just thought it wasn't classy at all and it just seemed to go on forever.

Probably my last time listening to his show.
 
I heard the interview last night and felt Canzano went too far and it felt like he was exploiting the man, who has many problems. I hope I'm wrong, but that's my take on it. The best of luck to Freeman.
 
I generally hate Canzano, but I thought that the article that appeared in the Oregonian was good and it was a nice piece of investigative journalism to track Freeman down since no one from PSU really knew what had happened to him.

This piece does not cast a negative reflection on PSU it is simply an interesting story. As far as the timing of the story, it's completely appropriate. There is a lot of attention on Vikings basketball right now and so there is more interest in an article like this. Canzano doesn't normally cover the Vikings so when do you expect him to write it?

As far as taking questions on the $20 dollars he gave Freeman right after interviewing him on the air, that is disgustingly disrespectful. I guess Canzano feels that since Williams is poor he can just treat him like trash. I don't have a problem with the incident appearing in the article, but from reading the piece it's obvious that Freeman wouldn't want Canzano to make a big deal of it, but John will not pay him that respect. It just goes to show what a giant deutsche Canzano is, even when he does something interesting he still manages to take it too far
 
I don't know if most people realize the unreal statistics Freeman Williams accumulated during his 4 years at Portland State.

http://www.listafterlist.com/tabid/57/listid/11319/Sports++Recreation/Leading+Scorers+in+College+Basketball+History+Career+Points.aspx

Individual scoring records for NCAA Div-1 college basketball players (PLAYER - TOTAL POINTS):

1. Pete Maravich, LSU - 3,667 pts
2. Freeman Williams, Port. St. - 3,249
3. Lionel Simmons, La Salle - 3,217
4. Alphonso Ford, Miss. Val. St. - 3,165
5. Harry Kelly, Texas Southern - 3,066
6. Hersey Hawkins, Bradley - 3,008
7. Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati - 2,973
8. Danny Manning, Kansas - 2,951
9. Alfredrick Hughes, Loyola-Ill. - 2,914
10. Elvin Hayes, Houston - 2,884

Freeman led the nation in scoring twice:

http://www.basketball.com/menscollege/records/NCAADiv1annualScoreLdrs.shtml

Year Player Games Points Avg
1977 Freeman Williams, Portland St 26 1010 38.8
1978 Freeman Williams, Portland St 27 969 35.9

All this scoring was done before the 3-point line was established in the college game. I've been told by people who watched Freeman in college that most of his points were from the outside, and a number of his baskets would have been 3-pointers with today's rules. Just amazing!
 
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