CHAPEL HILL – Former University of North Carolina basketball standouts Vince Carter and Walter Davis were elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024. The Hall of Fame announced the class Saturday at the Final Four in Phoenix.
Carter and Davis are the 13th and 14th individuals who played or coached at Carolina to be elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame. Only Kansas (20) has more. They will be inducted in Springfield, Mass., on August 17.
They are the seventh and eighth Tar Heels primarily elected to the Hall of Fame as players, which are the most by any college team in the country. They are also the ninth and 10th individuals who played college basketball for Dean Smith. No other coach has more former players elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Carter played for the Tar Heels from 1995-98, helping lead Carolina to ACC Tournament championships and NCAA Final Fours in 1997 and 1998. The Daytona Beach, Fla., native played a record 22 seasons in the NBA, where he is currently third all-time in games played behind Robert Parish and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, ninth in three-pointers and 21st in scoring.
Carter was first-team All-America and All-ACC in 1998. He averaged 15.6 points and led the ACC in field goal shooting as a junior, his third and final collegiate season.
“Vince is one of the most athletically-gifted players we ever had at Carolina,” says Phil Ford, an assistant coach on Smith’s staff during Carter’s playing career. “He had length, size, could jump out of the gym and became a really good outside shooter, as well. When he came to UNC, he worked so hard on all parts of his game. He took coaching, and by the time he was a junior he became our best defensive player and a complete player. He could have gone to any school in the country, but he chose to play for Coach Smith to become a complete player.
“He had that ‘awe’ effect. There were times Ed (Cota) would throw a lob and I thought it was going to fly out of bounds, but Vince would go up and get it and lay it in or dunk it. So many times, I would just catch myself saying, ‘Wow, that was pretty impressive.’”
Davis, a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, came to UNC from Pineville, N.C., and played for the Tar Heels from 1973-77. The uncle of current UNC head coach Hubert Davis, he scored 1,863 points for the Tar Heels, including a career-high 31 twice. He passed away at age 69 on Nov. 2, 2023.
“My uncle Walter is the reason I started playing basketball and the reason I wanted to play here at North Carolina,” says Hubert Davis. “He’s the best player I’ve ever been around and seen, and I’m so happy he’s being recognized for what an unbelievable career he had. The only sad part is he’s not here anymore and passed away before he was inducted. This honor is well-deserved and I’m so happy for him. Uncle Walt was an even better person than he was a player, and if there was a Hall of Fame for people, he would be in that one too.”
Both Carter and Davis played for Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith, were Olympic gold medalists (Davis in 1976, Carter in 2000), NBA Rookies of the Year (Davis in 1978, Carter in 1999), combined for 14 NBA All-Star teams (eight for Carter, six for Davis) and four All-NBA selections (two apiece).
Carter was the fans’ leading vote-getter in the NBA All-Star Game four times. He became the first NBA player to play in four decades. He averaged 24.1 points over his first nine seasons and totaled 25,728 regular-season points. Carter, Reggie Miller, Paul Pierce, LeBron James and James Harden are the only NBA players to compile 25,000 points and make 2,000 three-pointers. He finished in the top 10 in scoring six times.
Davis played 11 of his 15 professional seasons with the Phoenix Suns, who retired his jersey No. 6. He remains the Suns’ all-time leading scorer with 15,666 points (of his 19,521 career points) and is second in franchise history in field goals and games, third in steals and fourth in assists. He averaged 20 or more points six times and double figures in each of his first 14 seasons in the league.
“Walter’s one of the best friends I ever had,” says Ford, a legendary Carolina point guard and College Basketball Hall of Famer. “I think about him and miss him every day. He loved Carolina and was one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet. When I got to UNC, he was a year ahead of me and took me under his wing. He was very underrated, both at Carolina and in the NBA. To play the three (small forward) at UNC, you have to be very skilled as a ballhandler, scorer, rebounder and defender. And he could do all those things. He’s one of the best three men to ever play for the Tar Heels.
“He and Coach (Bill) Guthridge worked on his shot every day after practice, to the point where he became one of the most consistent shooters and scorers in the NBA. He was a confident shooter and one of the best NBA players shooting off screens. To be 6-6 and that fast and be able to shoot like that, he was blessed to have a skill set most people just don’t have.
“Walter going in the Naismith Hall of Fame means the world to me and to everyone who knew him and played with him. It’s long overdue but I am so happy he’s finally being recognized as a Hall of Famer.”
Carolina’s 14 Naismith Hall of Famers include Carter, Davis, Ben Carnevale (elected in 1970), Frank McGuire (1977), Smith (1983), Billy Cunningham (1986), Bob McAdoo (2000), Larry Brown (2002), James Worthy (2003), Roy Williams (2007), Michael Jordan (2009), Charlie Scott (2018), Bobby Jones (2019) and George Karl (2022).
