Bremerton's Marvin Williams could be 1st pick in NBA draft

BREMERTON — Garguile's Red Apple Market is the kind of store that still hangs handmade signs out front, advertising deals for pizza and cheddar cheese and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Customers are chatting with cashiers on Monday. They're talking children and discounts on Aisle 6 and Marvin Williams. Always, Marvin.

Steve Garguile occupies the office perched high above the store. His favorite Marvin Williams story — and everyone in this small Navy town has a favorite Marvin story — starts there, with a McDonald's All-American and a mop.

"My father [Nick Garguile] and I were watching the store," Garguile says. "We looked down, and there was Marvin swinging a mop back and forth. My dad says, 'Something's wrong with that picture. He's swinging a mop, and two years from now, he's going to be guarding Kevin Garnett.' "

Only there's nothing wrong with that picture. Because that picture defines the Marvin they know here.

The Marvin who bagged groceries at the local supermarket until he went off to North Carolina and won an NCAA championship last season. The Marvin who read Harry Potter books while the rest of his teammates blasted hip-hop through their headphones. The Marvin who played high-school soccer just so he could hang out with his friends.

His story is a love story, a sappy one at that, and maybe that's because so little of it actually has to do with basketball. They love Marvin here because he represents them, because he's one of them. Marvin, in turn, has always loved them back.

Bremerton will never forget Marvin and his legacy. And so, as Marvin prepares for his inevitable selection among the top three picks of Tuesday's NBA draft and the just-as inevitable million-dollar bank account, there's one thing they are certain of, the piece of Marvin they hold on to.

That he won't forget them, either.

"A lot of people say a lot of stuff about a lot of kids," says Adam Sedlik, Marvin's coach for Seattle Rotary Select. "But I can tell you this: There is nobody out there like Marvin Williams. Not a soul. He will not forget Bremerton. He loves it there. To him, it's the greatest place on earth."

"Little baby stories"

Folks in Bremerton all have Marvin stories. All of them. Stories that weave together to collectively tell the larger story, Marvin's story, about the boy who outgrew everything except the town where he grew up.

There are Marvin-is-the-perfect-teammate stories, like the time Sedlik remembers Williams fouling out of an AAU tournament with his future college coach, Roy Williams, in the stands. During the next timeout, there came Marvin, four cups of water in his oversized hands, the team's best player playing water boy.

Or the time one of Marvin's high-school teammates arrived 45 minutes late for a Saturday practice just before the district tournament. The way Marvin's soccer coach, Lance McCoy, tells it, the rest of the team walked away laughing after coaches doled out seven minutes worth of sprints as punishment. Marvin? He sprinted alongside.

"I worked for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America for 30 years, and I coached American Legion baseball," Bremerton mayor Cary Bozeman says. "And I've never met a finer kid than Marvin Williams. He's the kind of kid you always dream about coaching."

There are also Marvin-is-a-mama's-boy stories, and by all accounts, his humble, reserved, gentlemanly demeanor comes from Andrea Gittens, who raised Marvin and his two younger brothers. Like the time Marvin came home from North Carolina for this past Mother's Day. There's no way he would have missed it.

While home, he called Larry Gallagher, Bremerton's athletic director, asking if there was any way he could get into the gym for a workout.

"Then he asked me the same question he always asked in high school," Gallagher says. " 'What time is good for you?' That's him. An unbelievable kid."

There are also touching stories, the kind that tug at hearts, like the time McCoy and his son, Colton, bumped into Marvin at the YMCA in East Bremerton after the Tar Heels won the national championship. Their conversation went like this:

"Do you think you could get a program from North Carolina and sign it for Cole?" McCoy asked.

"Coach, I can't do that," Marvin responded.

"I'm sorry I even asked you."

"I'd like to do something better."

Turns out Roy Williams gave each Tar Heel an authentic basketball autographed by everyone on the team. Marvin gave his to Colton. It's sitting in a case in the McCoy basement.

"I know these are little baby stories," McCoy says, his voice quivering with emotion. "But they mean the world to a little boy and his father. And they mean the world to this town."

Basketball hero

There are basketball stories, too, and without them, Marvin would simply be the kindest grocery bagger anyone in Bremerton ever met. They are the difference between the $7.60 an hour Marvin made at Red Apple and the $10 million to $12 million guaranteed contract he'll earn in his first three years in the NBA. They are the reason he will become the highest-drafted player in state history if taken first or second.

Like the time before his senior year in high school, when Marvin and the rest of Seattle Rotary Select went to the Las Vegas Big Time Tournament. In the semifinals, they trailed the Atlanta Celtics — whose lineup included future NBA players Dwight Howard and Josh Smith and Kentucky's Randolph Morris — by 23 points at halftime.

"Somebody needs to show me something," Sedlik barked. "We know they're good, but this is unacceptable."

The shy, 6-foot-9 forward from Bremerton quietly raised his hand.

"I'm ready, coach," he said.

Marvin tallied 35 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Rotary lost, but not before cutting the lead to six points. And there was Marvin with 20 seconds left, hounding the Celtics' point guard until referees whistled him for reaching in. Sedlik took him out. The packed gym showered Marvin with a standing ovation. Sedlik says it gave him shivers.

Or the time in high school when Bremerton coach Casey Lindberg and Marvin walked into the commons area at Foss High School and cacophony turned to silence. Now Lindberg was used to this, having spent, by his estimate, eight to 12 hours a day on Marvin-related recruiting issues, having waited for an hour after away games for his star player to sign autographs. He was not used to what happened during the game, though, when Marvin threw down a dunk so ferocious they had to stop the game because Foss students ran out on the court and celebrated like they were watching an AND1 streetball tournament.

"It was like something that would happen at Rucker Park," Lindberg says. "I just can't help but smile when I think about Marvin. I hope nothing ever changes him."

"I'm boring"

That's the million-dollar question, what all of Bremerton wants to know. How will the NBA, with all the Hummers and entourages and hangers-on, change Marvin? Or will it?

Marvin is a self-described homebody. That's why small-town Bremerton suited him so well and vice versa, why he chose to play high-school basketball there instead of transferring to a Seattle school for more exposure.

"I'm boring," Marvin told reporters in Chicago at the NBA's pre-draft camp this month. "I don't do anything. I stay out of trouble, do what I'm supposed to do, and that's it. I'm very fortunate, but I'm not too exciting."

Marvin boasts the still-growing body of a man and the basketball skills to match. And still, he holds onto what friends describe as a childlike innocence.

For proof, they point to the Marvin the Martian tattoo on his arm, the Lion King backpack Lindberg remembers him toting around school, the Harry Potter books he reads religiously on road trips and the practical jokes Marvin plays on practically everyone he knows.

High-school teammate Zachary Otis is telling his favorite Marvin story at Red Apple the other day. It was the time Marvin asked Lindberg when Saturday practices would be conducted. Told that they started at 9 a.m., Marvin jumped joyously and clapped his hands together.

When asked why, he said, "Because 'Rugrats' comes on at 11."

That's the Marvin they remember here, the Marvin they won't forget. And for all the talk about Marvin being less than two years removed from a high-school team that didn't win a district playoff game and a few months removed from not even starting at North Carolina, this is what they point to.

He just turned 19 on June 19, the same day he worked out for the Milwaukee Bucks. There's still growing to do.

The one thing folks in Bremerton won't do is put limits on their native son. Lindberg says Marvin could have averaged 50 points in high school if he were only more selfish. McCoy says that, with two years training, Marvin could have been a college soccer goalie.

"He's still a kid right now, and that's what I like about him," Otis says. "He's so humble and still so fun and not all grown up and serious. He's growing, becoming a man. That's something that's astonishing to me. I was just playing with him. And now he's going to the NBA."

Adds Bozeman, the mayor: "There's no question in my mind he's going to make it. Not one."

Favorite son

Folks in Bremerton all have opinions on Marvin. Like the woman at the front desk at Mountain View Middle School where Lindberg teaches who thinks Marvin made a mistake by not staying in school. Or the man making sandwiches at Kate's Jersey Subs who calls Marvin "the Bremerton boy made good." Or the teacher at the high school, Mrs. Snyder, who graces the second page of the school newspaper.

The question: What is your biggest fantasy?

Her answer, a full year after he graduated: "Being Marvin's athletic trainer."

From Garguile's Red Apple Market on Perry Avenue across the Manette Bridge to the Calvary Chapel, where a sign outside reads "the best is yet to come," they wait in anticipation of the draft.

Standing in the same Red Apple Market where Marvin used to work, underneath a dripping faucet and next to a compactor and dozens of containers of apple juice, Otis wants to add one thing.

"He's going to put Bremerton on the map," Otis says.

Adds store owner Claudia Garguile: "He'll never forget where he's from."

Adds Otis: "Exactly. Marvin is Bremerton."

"Who's Marvin Williams?" McCoy asks. "I believe I can sum it up. He's a person that has learned the human quality. He's a gentleman that puts others first. He's the real deal. I know it sounds trite and corny, but he's a gift to this world. He's a hero. He gets it. That's who Marvin Williams is.

"I'll be rooting for him."

Won't they all.

Greg Bishop: 206-464-3191 or gbishop@seattletimes.com