No. 8: Antawn Jamison
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:
*************************************************************************************
And Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE AN INSIDER, TOO!!!
*************************************************************************************
No. 8: Antawn Jamison (1995-98)
In three years as a Tar Heel, Jamison was a three-time All-America, twice on the first team, three-time first-team All-ACC, the 1998 ACC Player of the Year, the consensus National Player of the Year in 1998, led UNC to two Final Fours, was named the 1998 East Regional MOP, and won the ACC Tournament MVP in 1998.
Jamison was the first player named first-team All-ACC as a freshman, sophomore and junior, he was named 1998 ACC Male Athlete of the Year, and his No. 33 jersey at UNC is retired.
The No. 4 overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft, Jamison played 16 seasons in the league. He played in two NBA All-Star games, was on the All-Rookie team, and in 2004 was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year.
Jamison average 20 or more points a game in five NBA seasons with a high of 24.9 in 2001 and in four other seasons, he averaged between 19,.5 and 19.8 points. In 11 seasons, he averaged 18 or more points. In 46 playoff games, he averaged 17.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest.
He averaged 10.2 rebounds in 2008 and averaged 8 or more in seven different seasons.
Jamison finished his career with 20,042 points (18.5 average), 8,157 rebounds (7.5) and 1,716 assists. At this time, he’s the only player to ever reach those numbers without making it into the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Jamison averaged more than 20 points per game in a period noting 11 of 12 seasons, and the year he didn’t, in 2004, he was the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year.