Editor Cal Bryant showed off a funny photo this week sent to him by 5th District Representative Howard Hunter III.  It was Hunter posing with UNC basketball coach Roy Williams when the coach and his team went to Raleigh Wednesday to appear before the General Assembly and visit with Gov. Roy Cooper at the Executive Mansion.

The photo drew a smile from this here ol’ Tar Heel fan because Hunter was wearing a Carolina Blue T-shirt emblazoned with words that paraphrased Michael Jordan’s famous faux pas from last winter when His Airness was addressing a Smith Center crowd and got his sense of architecture confused. In case you missed it, Jordan – trying to imply the sky’s the limit for UNC football – said the program was headed upward: floor, ceiling, to roof.

Hunter’s T-shirt read: “Floor, Ceiling, Champions”, and Williams even presented Hunter, and the governor, an autographed basketball signed by all the members of his team.

Rep. Hunter: don’t lose that basketball!  The governor might send the Highway Patrol after me if I tried to sneak off with his.

And, there was more ‘colorful’ celebration going on in the Capital:

Harnett County Rep. David Lewis wrote an amendment to his House Resolution 921 which honored the Tar Heels for winning the 2017 National Championship.

The amendment read, “Whereas, countless Carolina fans would love to see the team repeat its accomplishments by winning another national championship in 2018 and, in order to achieve that goal, players Tony Bradley and Theo Pinson are required to follow the decision made by Joel Berry II to continue playing as a Tar Heel.”

Berry already said he was returning and Pinson announced his decision to stay at UNC on Wednesday, though Bradley had yet to announce.

Fortunately, Speaker of the House Tim Moore flagged the amendment before it reached the General Assembly floor.

“Hey, Coach Roy, I tried,” Lewis announced.  “But the Speaker ruled this amendment is out of order.”

As if those shenanigans weren’t enough – there was more than Tar Heel Blue on the Floor.

Senator Rick Gunn decided to have a little fun with N.C. State and its fans by poking fun at fellow Republican Sen. John M. Alexander Jr. of Wake County, who showed up to the ceremony dressed in all red.

Alexander is a graduate of N.C. State and Gunn graduated from Carolina.

“I’ll tell you the stat that I like the most,” Gunn said, “with this win, Coach now has the same amount of NCAA Championships as he does losses to North Carolina State.”

Again, in case you didn’t know: since Williams took over at UNC he has lost to State exactly three times – the same number of National Championships he’s racked up.

Before he left, Williams got in a little dig at all the legislators who showed up not wearing blue:

“It’s really very satisfying to see a few people wearing red because I know you people don’t want to be here today,” Williams said. “And I tell you that really satisfies me right down to my core.”

Careful coach, football season’s coming.

Williams had some advice for the state’s lawmakers before he left, and didn’t use a single dad-gum when he said it:

“This is a team, and that’s what I want you folks to continue to be … for our great state,” Williams said. “We need your help in a lot of ways. We need you to reach across the aisles to work together as a team.”

Now if they could just lighten up like that in Washington just think what we taxpayers could have on our hands then.

Gene Motley is a Staff Writer at Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact him at gene.motley@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7211.