RIP Walter Davis

Always enjoyed watching him play big against my Showtime Lakers.

Legendary Tar Heel Walter Davis Passes Away At Age 69 - University of North Carolina Athletics

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Walter Davis, an all-star at the University of North Carolina and in the NBA, a member of the United States gold-medal winning Olympic basketball team in 1976 and uncle of UNC head coach Hubert Davis, passed away this morning of natural causes while visiting family in Charlotte, N.C.

Davis (69) was one of the best shooters in Carolina basketball history. A member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the Pineville, N.C., native was a two-time All-ACC honoree in 1976 and as a senior in 1977, when he led the Tar Heels to an ACC Tournament title and appearance in the NCAA championship game.

He scored 1,863 points, grabbed 670 rebounds and had 409 assists playing for head coach Dean Smith.

This season is the 50th anniversary of Davis's 25-foot shot at the buzzer against Duke that capped an eight-point comeback in the final 17 seconds of regulation to send the game to overtime, where the Tar Heels won. It is one of the most iconic moments in college basketball and, even as a freshman, cemented his place in Carolina Basketball history.

Davis won NBA Rookie-of-the-Year honors with the Phoenix Suns in 1978. He was a five-time NBA All-Star and the Suns retired his No. 6.

 

The Greyhound! First became familiar with him reading Xander Hollander's NBA guides, back before the NBA games were nationally televised.

 

RIP.

The folks who grew up on Tobacco Road will have way more stories than I could possibly add, but that Carolina-Duke game has got to be one of the five greatest games in ACC history. (I'm thinking the 1974 conference championship game between State and Maryland is a runaway No. 1.)

It's amazing to think each conference got just one NCAA Tournament bid back then.

To hear people who were there -- or even watching or listening -- talk about that sequence of events that led to overtime will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. What an incredible comeback. And what an inspiration for a generation of Tar Heel fans (hello, Elson Armstrong Jr.) who rooted for UNC because Dean Smith broke the color barrier with Charlie Scott in 1966.

And that 1977 NCAA run with Pineville's Walter Davis and Rocky Mount's Phil Ford, two amazing talents from little towns at the opposite ends of the state. From Murphy to Manteo, if you played high school basketball, your dream was to eventually wind up in Tar Heel blue. (Unless you were David Thompson, who remains one of the most amazing college players I've ever seen.)

 

It's why USC didn't get in for many years.

 

I remember working at the Shrunken Head t-shirt shop one summer while at Chapel Hill, and we'd get a lot of the kids coming through who were going to the week-long basketball camps. We had a small section of basketball cards of former UNC players in the back of the store that I was hanging around one day. This would be late '90s. A great thrill of mine then as a student was recognizing Walter Davis and bringing him back to show him the two cards of him that we had.

"Ah, that one's pretty nice," he said of one of them. "I look like a ballplayer."

He was gentle and kind that day, and moved in the way a guy nicknamed Sweet D would be expected to move. Effortless and comfortable.

And @maumann, the 17 Seconds against Duke - and Davis' shot - was required learning once you picked the right shade of blue's side when growing up...

 

He was such a joy to watch play basketball. This makes me sad.

 

Definitely had this in my collection.



RIP. Go Heels.

 

Davis was the player the young Jordan was most often compared to.

 

Heh. Trying growing up the son of a Duke alum. Then picking the third school when coming of age. What is this "picking" you so selectively describe?

Walter and Phil Ford were just a little before my time. Difference was that alcohol messed up Ford's future. Walter Davis didn't let much of anything stop him ... including Duke during those famous 17 seconds.

 

Davis is a couple years older than me. I remember watching his jump shot and being so envious. It was so smooth and appeared to be so effortless.