CHAPEL HILL – Hubert Davis is a Carolina guy through and through. But his basketball DNA isn’t relegated to just all things Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, and Roy Williams.
No doubt Davis has spent the last 33 years of his life fully connected to the hierarchy of college basketball, immersed in an approach and culture that has proven to stand among the best in the sport. But his path also includes other elements of basketball royalty, and that has made Davis who he is today.
“Well, that's one of the things I'm very thankful for,” Davis said Tuesday during his introductory press conference as UNC’s new coach. “Obviously, that I had the experience of playing here for four years under Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge. And the experience on and off the court from them the four years that I was here was invaluable.
“But I'm very thankful and blessed to have experienced other things as well. You mentioned I played for Pat Riley for three years. Can't ask for a better coach.”
Riley coached Davis for a few years when they were with the New York Knicks. Riley played in college at Kentucky, where his jersey is retired, then won an NBA title playing for the Los Angeles Lakers before being a part of six more NBA titles as an assistant coach, head coach, and executive. He was named NBA Executive of the Year in 2011 and is regarded as perhaps the greatest coach/executive in NBA history.
Learning about basketball and the nuances that make each coach unique is one thing, but plane rides, locker room chats, and seeing how highly successful coaches handle highs and lows might be the most valuable things Davis learned from his many NBA associations in the game.
“There's so many things in terms of, with (Riley), the preparation and the process that you have to have just to have a chance to be successful,” Davis said.
But his run with legends didn’t end there.
Don Nelson is the all-time NBA leader in wins with 1,335, coached teams to eight division titles, and his No. 19 is retired by the Boston Celtics. He took over for Riley with the Knicks going into Davis’ final season in the Big Apple.
Davis was the starting shooting guard and averaged scoring in double figures, but Nelson wasn’t too impressed with Davis’ game and pulled him from the starting lineup. He actually told the 6-foot-4 sharpshooter he wouldn’t play for him, prompting the Burke, VA, native to grind away changing his game.
Much of the last four years of Davis’ career were spent with him running the point, he proudly recalled.
“He said, ‘I know you can shoot the basketball, but I need a basketball player,” Davis said. “He said, ‘I don't need anybody that just wants to shoot. I need somebody that can defend, rebound, handle the basketball. I need somebody to come off ball screens. I need somebody to rebound.
“‘I need a basketball player. I just don't need a one-dimensional player.’ I said, ‘Wow, that's a really nice conversation to your starter in the first conversation. I appreciate that.’ And he just walked away. And I'm so thankful that he had that conversation with me because he told me exactly what I needed to hear as opposed to what I wanted to hear.”
Honesty is one of the greatest services a coach can do for a player. Smith operated that way. Guthridge did, too, and so did Williams. But Davis also experienced it at the very highest level and embraces the moment.
He played for Larry Brown when with the Detroit Pistons in the early 2000s. Brown was a star at UNC under Smith and later went on to have tremendous success. He was an all-star in the ABA winning a title in 1969. He was a three-time ABA Coach of the Year, was NBA Coach of the Year in 2001, led the Pistons to an NBA title in 2004, and in college led UCLA to the national championship game in 1980 and Kansas to the national title in 1988.
Davis played for Nelson with the Dallas Mavericks, also was also coached by Rick Carlisle as well. All Carlisle did was win an NBA title as a player and coach and was named the NBA Coach of the Year in 2002. Davis played for Doug Collins, Jeff Van Gundy was an assistant when he was with the Knicks, and the list of players Davis called teammates is equally impressive.
“I played with Patrick Ewing, John Starks and Doc Rivers and Rolando Blackman,” Davis recalled. “And the Dallas Mavericks, the things that I got to learn playing with Michael Finley and Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki. When I was with the Detroit Pistons and also the Washington Wizards, playing with Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups.
“I finally got a chance to play with Michael (Jordan) instead of going up against him against Chicago. And just the experience of being around the greatest player that's ever played the game for one year was just absolutely unbelievable.”
Imagine the plane rides. Hotel lounges, restaurants, the locker room two hours before tipoff, shoot arounds in the morning before big games, but also not-so-big games when the true reflection of one’s preparation shows.
Davis has seen it from legendary coaches and players, and he has lived it himself. He scored 5,583 points in 12 NBA seasons and is second all-time ithree-point percentage in league history at 44.1 percent.
His hoops DNA is filled with the Carolina Way, but it has a lot of other valuable stuff in there, too. And that is the fuller story of why Hubert Davis is now North Carolina’s coach.
