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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 continue our countdown with:
No. 26: Kenny Smith (1983-87)
Kenny Smith was the Basketball Times and Sporting News 1987 National Player of the Year at Carolina, consensus first-team All-America and All-ACC that season. He was second-team All-ACC in 1985 and 1986.
Smith was the starting point guard on two UNC teams that went undefeated in ACC play in 1984 and 1987, and finished the regular season both years ranked No. 1 in the nation. He was a game manager but also a playmaker, creator for himself and others, and was a prolific scorer when needed. His career-high at UNC was 40 points one night at Clemson in 1987. It was the first time a Tar Heel hit the 40-point mark in 17 years, with the previous time Charlie Scott doing so in 1970.
Smith is second all-time at UNC with 738 career assists (was first when he graduated) averaging 6.1 assists per contest in his career and at the time was also Carolina’s all-time leader in steals with 195. He now ranks fifth in that category.
He scored 1,636 points as a Tar Heel, ranking him 22nd all-time, and averaged 12.9 points per game for his career. Smith scored 40 points one night in a win at Clemson. His jersey No. 30 is honored in the rafters at the Smith Center.
Smith was the No. 6 overall pick in the 1first round of the 1987 NBA draft and spent 11 seasons in the league. He was the starting point guard for the Houston Rockets’ world championship teams in 1994 and 1995.
He was on the NBA All-Rookie team in 1988. Smith scored 9,397 points and averaged 12.8 points per game in his NBA career. Has had a successful career as an NBA and college basketball analyst for Turner Sports and CBS. He has won several Emmys as a broadcaster.
