Roy Williams Needs Sensitivity Lessons

His massage therapist? His life? I keep looking for a way to justify what North Carolina coach Roy Williams said, as if maybe it was just one of those stupid things you say that you wish you could take back.

And not that it was a window into your soul. Good people say bad things sometimes, right?

Williams does have a tendency to talk too much. But he was asked the other day about how tough his team's season has been. When the defending national champs stink for a few weeks, it's tough on everyone, I suppose. Here's what he said:

"Our massage therapist told me ... She said, 'You know, Coach? What happened in Haiti is a catastrophe. What you're having is a disappointment.' And I told her that depends on which chair she was sitting in, because it does feel like a catastrophe to me. And that's because it is my life.''

How embarrassing for Williams. Take his inevitable apology any way you want.

This is the moment where I should be coming up with one of those clever, pithy comments from a writer, and all I have is this:

That is one of the most self-centered things ever said.

He said it with a little grin. Was it supposed to be a joke?

Think about this: His massage therapist was telling him to put things in perspective.

Williams sounds like one of those guys who says, "Of course I understand the plight of poor people. My chauffeur knows one of them.''

The death count is up to 230,000 in Haiti. The papers in North Carolina and the UNC website have been filled with poignant stories about local people in fear for their families and loved ones.

And Williams says the losing streak is a catastrophe to him, because it involves his life. Think how he felt after losing to Duke Wednesday night.

It would be nice if he thought Haiti involved his life, too. You know, my kids asked if they could set up a lemonade stand at the grocery store to help the people of Haiti. Everyone has stories like that, and it makes you feel good about society to hear them.

Meanwhile, it's a good guess that Williams is one of the highest-paid employees in the North Carolina education system ... if not the highest.

Frankly, I've liked Williams, respected him. His end-of-season losses always lead to some embarrassing blubbering, but whatever. That just shows commitment.

You just can't get past this one, though. Remember a few years ago after Williams' Kansas team lost the national championship game, and CBS reporter Bonnie Bernstein asked him whether he would consider going to North Carolina?

"I don't give a (deleted) about North Carolina.''

That's what everyone remembers him saying. His point was that it wasn't the time to ask. Also in that interview, he said that he understood Bernstein's reason for asking as a journalist, but "As a human being that's not very nice because it's not very sensitive.

"I got to think that in tough times, people should be more sensitive.''

Exactly.

Last year, North Carolina won the championship under Williams, who is a fantastic coach, and everyone wrote about how he belonged in the Mount Rushmore of coaches.

This is what happens when everyone tells you that sports is the most important thing in the world.

A few years ago Alabama's football team lost to Louisiana-Monroe, and someone asked coach Nick Saban about how his team would bounce back.

"Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event,'' he said at the time. "It may be 9/11, which sort of changed the spirit of America relative to catastrophic events. Pearl Harbor kind of got us ready for World War II, and that was a catastrophic event."

Football. Catastrophic. Massage therapist. Haiti. Basketball slump.

Do you think these coaches, leaders of young men, believe their games are actually that important to humankind?

A recent headline on the UNC website said, "Haitian patients arrive at UNC Health Care on Jan. 26.'' It was a story about the university and the state flying in victims to care for them.

Also on the site was a letter of thanks from a doctoral candidate, theoretically a Haitian, for the school's outpouring of help.

"Even in this darkest hour of our history, I want you to know that we are grateful for your humanity, and that we still feel lucky to be the object of such an outpouring of support,'' he wrote. "I am one of those who believe that our best days lie ahead. Thanks again for everything!''

Tim Crothers, the former Sports Illustrated writer who co-wrote Williams' autobiography, had a piece on ACCSports.com about UNC assistant track coach Nadine Faustin-Parker, saying he could barely find her in her office among "the cardboard boxes full of bottled water, chicken noodle soup and spaghetti, and the Carolina blue trash bags overstuffed with children's pants and shoes.''

She is the daughter of Haitian parents, and is collecting boxes of donations much faster than she can send out.

"To see the horrific pictures of what's going on in the country, it looks overwhelming,'' she said. "But to know that I can hopefully bring some peace to some people who are suffering, that's what fuels me.''

Suffering? Don't tell Williams about suffering.

E-mail me at gregcouch09@aol.com