On Saturday, Vince Carter and Walter Davis, two legendary North Carolina basketball players, were inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. After Kansas (20), Carter and Davis became the 13th and 14th former Tar Heels to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame. The event is set for August 17 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The most Tar Heels of any college, Carter and Davis, are the seventh and eighth players to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Dean Smith now has the most former players in the Hall of Fame of any college basketball coach with his induction.
From 1995 to 1998, Carter played three seasons as a standout player for the Tar Heels, winning two All-ACC selections in 1997 and 1998. As a junior, he was unanimously selected to the first team of All-America. After spending a record 22 seasons in the NBA—where he became the first player to compete in four distinct decades—he announced his retirement from the league in 2020. With 1,541 games played, he is third all-time behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish. Among former Tar Heels, his 25,728 career points rank him No. 19 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, second only to Michael Jordan.
“Vince is one of the most athletically-gifted players we ever had at Carolina,” Phil Ford stated. “He was big and long, could leap out of the gym, and developed into a tremendously skilled outside shooter. He put in a lot of work on every aspect of his game when he arrived at UNC. After receiving coaching, he developed into our finest defensive player and all-around player by the time he was a junior. Though he had the option to attend any university in the nation, he decided to play for Coach Smith in order to develop into a full player.
There was a ‘awe’ factor about him. Sometimes I thought Ed (Cota) would lob the ball out of bounds, but Vince would reach up and catch it, lay it in, or dunk it. I would just keep thinking to myself, “Whoa, that was pretty impressive.”
Davis, who played at North Carolina from 1973 to 1977 and was the uncle of UNC head coach Hubert Davis, passed away in November at the age of 69. With 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists in his career, Davis has played in the most games in UNC history (42). As a senior, he was named to the first team and was selected to two All-ACC teams. Professionally, Davis was a member of six all-star teams and was awarded Rookie of the Year in 1978. The Phoenix Suns have retired his No. 6 jersey. During his 15 NBA seasons, he averaged 18.9 points and 3.8 assists a game.
“My uncle Walter is the reason I started playing basketball and the reason I wanted to play here at North Carolina,” stated Hubert Davis. “He’s the greatest player I’ve ever seen or been around, and I’m thrilled that his incredible career is getting the recognition it deserves. The only unfortunate thing is that he passed away prior to being inducted, thus he is no longer with us. He deserves this accolade, and I’m very thrilled for him. If there was a Hall of Fame for people, Uncle Walt would be in it as well since he was an even better guy than a player.
Carter and Davis were teammates under Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith. They also won gold medals in the Olympics (Davis in 1976, Carter in 2000), were named NBA Rookies of the Year (Davis in 1978, Carter in 1999), and were selected to four All-NBA teams (two each) out of a total of 14 NBA All-Star teams (eight for Carter and six for Davis).
Carter, Davis, Frank McGuire (1977), Smith (1983), Billy Cunningham (1986), Bob McAdoo (2000), Larry Brown (2002), James Worthy (2003), Roy Williams (2007), Michael Jordan (2009), Charlie Scott (2018), Bobby Jones (2019), and George Karl (2022) are the 14 members of the Carolina Naismith Hall of Fame.
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