No. 5: James Worthy
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:
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No. 5: James Worthy (1979-82)
Worthy was named the 1982 National Player of the Year, was the MOP at the 1982 Final Four, two-time first-team All-America, two-time first-team All-ACC, 1982 ACC Tournament MVP, 1982 NCAA East Region MVP, 1982 ACC Athlete of the Year, helped lead the Tar Heels to consecutive appearances in the national championship game, winning the title in 1982. Worthy scored 28 points in the win over Georgetown that gave Dean Smith his first national title.
Worthy suffered a broken foot during his freshman season and was limited to 14 games. He averaged 14.5 points and 7.4 rebounds per game for his career while shooting 54.1 percent from the floor, scoring 1,219 points, grabbing 620 career rebounds, handing out 208 career assists, recording 94 career blocked shots and handing out 117 career steals.
The 6-foot-8 forward was just the second UNC player to leave school early for the NBA, joining Bob McAdoo, who left early 10 years earlier. Worthy’s jersey No. 52 at UNC is retired.
Professionally, Worthy was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1982 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. He was a seven-time NBA All-Star, MVP of the 1988 NBA Finals, three-time NBA champion, named to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time team, NBA Rookie of the Year in 1983, and his No. 42 jersey is retired by the Lakers.
In 12 seasons in the NBA, Worthy scored 16,320 points (17.6 average), grabbed 4,708 rebounds (5.1 average) and registered 1,041 steals (1.1 average). He averaged 21.1 points in 143 NBA playoff games, with his best game coming in the 1988 Finals’ series clincher when he totaled 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists.
Worthy has provided television color commentary for NBA and college basketball games and has also served as assistant to the Lakers’ coaching staff in developing big men.
He is enshrined in the College Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Hall of Fame.