Every offseason, we run historical ranking series focusing on North Carolina basketball and football.
The purpose each spring isn’t to make declarative statements, but to have fun offering a subjective look at the best teams and players ever at Carolina. This effort is to generate discourse, debate, and take UNC fans down memory lane.
This season, we are doing something a little different, combining football and basketball, as we offer our take on the Top 40 UNC football and basketball players of all time. The criteria is quite simple: The process includes playing careers with the Tar Heels and professionally, other relevant impacts they’ve had on their sports, coaching, and championships. We also gave a lean toward all UNC accomplishments.
So, this isn’t a UNC-only list, a pro-only list, or a straight up purely best ever list. Some Tar Heels on this list didn’t have great pro careers but were so good and historic at UNC, they simply had to make the cut. Some on this list weren’t stars at UNC, but had outstanding and/or highly distinguished pro careers, that it warranted their place among these 40 athletes.
We hope you enjoy the list and feel free to disagree, as we know many will.
We conclude our countdown with:
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No. 1: Michael Jordan (1981-84)
Jordan was the 1984 consensus National Player of the Year, the 1984 ACC Player of the Year, The Sporting News National Player of the Year in 1983, a two-time first-team All-America, two-time first-team All-ACC, ACC Rookie of the Year in 1982, made the 1982 NCAA All-Tournament team in helping lead UNC to the 1982 national championship, where his jump shot with 17 seconds left gave UNC the lead for good and Dean Smith his first national title.
He averaged 17.7 points, 5 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.7 steals per game over his UNC career. Averaged 20 points per contest in 1983, nullifying the silly perception that Smith was the only one that could hold Jordan to under 20 points a game. Scored 1,788 points as a Tar Heel.
He led Carolina to an 88-13 record, including a 14-0 ACC record in 1984 and was named the Greatest ACC Athlete of the league’s first 50 years. He was a sensational college player, but his game was only in the early stages of the greatness he displayed in later years.
Jordan won two Olympic gold medals, including in 1984 when amateurs still played. Also, he was a three-time USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year.
Professionally, the No. 3 overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls, Jordan was a five-time NBA MVP, played on 14 All-Star teams, won six NBA championships, was named the NBA Finals MVP six times, won three NBA All-Star Game MVPs, NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 1988, Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1991, nine-time NBA All-Defensive team, 10-time NBA scoring champ, three-time NBA steals leader, two-time NBA slam dunk champion, three-time AP Athlete of the Year, NBA Rookie of the Year.
He played 14 seasons in the NBA, scored 32,292 career points (30.1 average), grabbed 6,672 rebounds (6.2 average), handed out 5,633 assists (5.3 average. Eight times averaged more than 30 points per game.
Jordan averaged 33.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.1 steals in 179 NBA playoff games.
He’s enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame, College Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Widely considered the greatest basketball player ever, but also transcended sports by changing how athletes are marketed. Built a billion-dollar empire with Nike and the Jordan Brand. He’s considered the richest former athlete of all time, with a net worth of $1.6 billion. He hasn’t played in 19 years, but is still as recognizable as any athlete, and may carry the same branding power as ever.
He is enshrined in the Naismith Hall Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame.
