When checking the boxes of prospective candidates to become the next men’s basketball coach at North Carolina, surely Bubba Cunningham was wowed by the time it must have taken to note each and every notch on Hubert Davis’ resume.
It goes back 45 years, to be frank, and is laced with basketball royalty.
Hubert Davis will become UNC’s new basketball coach, succeeding Roy Williams, who retired last Thursday after 18 years, three national championships, and a legendary run that will keep him among the sport’s greatest coaches for the rest of time. Davis has a lot to live up to.
But how did he get here? What exactly qualifies Davis for the job even though he has no head coaching experience, other than several years as the JV coach at Carolina?
It begins in 1976.
Davis was just six years old when his uncle, Tar Heels legend Walter Davis, was a member of the United States Olympic basketball team. Three other Tar Heels – Phil Ford, Tommy LaGarde, and Mitch Kupchak – were also on the team and it was coached by Dean Smith with his UNC assistant Bill Guthridge also on the staff.
Just a little kid, Hubert rode back from Montreal with those Heels and had began his life in various capacities as a Tar Heel. He is 50 years old now, but so much of what has transpired between that car ride and him being named UNC’s new coach prepared him for this moment. And it also crowded a resume that Cunningham combed over with increasing amazement.
Think about it:
*Davis was not a highly rated player coming out of Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, VA, where he attended at the same time as UNC and soccer legend Mia Hamm. Many thought he was a legacy player due to Smith’s love of Walter, so little was expected from Hubert. He averaged 3.3 points per game as a freshman and then 9.6 as a sophomore, 13.3 as a junior, and 21.4 as a senior, earning him second-team All-ACC honors.
So, Davis played four seasons for Dean Smith, and as a self-made player, exceeded all expectations turning into a terrific player at Carolina. He scored 1,615 points as a Tar Heel.
*Davis was selected as the No. 20 overall pick by the New York Knicks in the 1992 NBA draft. His coach for three years with the Knicks was Pat Riley, who played for Adolph Rupp at Kentucky where he was SEC Player of the Year in 1966 and his No. 42 is retired by UK. Riley won an NBA championship as a player with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972. He was an assistant on the Lakers’ staff when they won the NBA title in 1980, and he later led five teams as a head coach to NBA titles and two as an executive. In fact, Riley was named NBA Executive of the Year in 2011. Some consider him the greatest coach/executive in NBA history.
*Davis then played a year in New York and for four years with the Dallas Mavericks for Don Nelson, who won eight division titles and 1,335 games, as an NBA head coach, the most in league history, and his No. 19 is retired by the Boston Celtics.
*In addition, Davis played two seasons for Larry Brown with the Detroit Pistons. Brown is one of the most successful members of the Carolina family, was a legendary player for Dean Smith and an all-star in the ABA winning a championship in 1969. As a coach, he was a three-time ABA Coach of the Year, NBA Coach of the Year in 2001, won an NBA title with the Pistons in 2004, led UCLA to the national championship game in 1980, and led Kansas to a national title in 1988. He was succeeded at KU following that season by Roy Williams.
Davis scored 5,583 points in the NBA and is second all-time in NBA three-point percentage at 44.1 percent.
*As an assistant for Williams at UNC Davis coached nine seasons, including the 2016 NCAA runner-up and the 2017 national champions.
Think about it, Davis’ life has intertwined with UNC and basketball royalty and greatness. He has played for and coached under some of the greatest coaches ever. Very few people played for Smith and worked for Williams. He has had a front-row seat to many of the greatest minds in the sport for more than three decades, and really began soaking it in before reaching the second grade.
He played for Smith, who was third generation from the inventor of th sport, he coached under WIlliams, who was fourth generation from the inventor of the sport. And now he's fifth generation from the inventor of the sport.
If life experience and professional associations mean anything, then this hire makes a lot of sense. But UNC’s people will go one step further. By all accounts, Davis is a terrific person.
In 2008, he received The Coach Wooden “Keys to Life” Award, which is “presented annually to a member of the college or professional basketball community who lives out qualities exemplified by Coach Wooden; outstanding character, integrity, and leadership on the court, in the work place, in the home, and in the community.”
Hubert Davis doesn’t have head coaching experience, but he checks every other box. And that’s why he’s Carolina’s next head coach.
