Coby White drops career high in win over Sacramento Kings

Former UNC basketball guard Coby White drops a career-high 37 points while dropping fellow Tar Heel Harrison Barnes in a highlight finish.

It’s been quite the season for former UNC basketball star [autotag]Coby White[/autotag], who continues to improve his chances for the NBA Most Improved Player of the Year award.

White has been posterizing the competition and added another poster Monday night against another fellow Tar Heel. White and the Chicago Bulls played in Sacramento, taking on [autotag]Harrison Barnes[/autotag] and the Kings.

The second quarter is where White added Barnes to his highlight reel, as both Tar Heels matched up at the top of the key. White utilizing his handles and speed, not only crossed up Barnes to get to the rim, but added an exclamation point with a thunderous dunk over the former UNC star.

The monstrous finish added to what ended up being a huge night for White, scoring a career-high 37 points and seven assists. White led the charge for Chicago, who came back after being down 22 points to beat the Kings 113-109.

He had the go-ahead bucket in the win, scoring a layup late to give the Bulls a 111-109 lead.

This is White’s fifth game in the last two months, eclipsing 30 points or more, adding to his MIP resume. White and the Bulls will be back in action Wednesday to take on the Utah Jazz.

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Justin Jackson signs 10-day contract with Timberwolves

Former UNC basketball standout Justin Jackson has signed a 10-day contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves out of the All-Star break.

Former North Carolina Tar Heels standout Justin Jackson is getting another crack at the NBA.

On Wednesday, Jackson signed a 10-day contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the top team in the Western Conference at the NBA All-Star break. The 28-year-old Jackson has spent the entire season with the Texas Legends in the G-League, averaging 19.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 19 games.

He was last in the NBA with the Boston Celtics during the 2022-23 season and was traded at the 2023 NBA deadline to Oklahoma City before being cut by the Thunder. The 10-day contract will give him another shot in the league with a different team.

The former first-round pick back in 2017 has played six seasons, averaging 6.0 points and 2.4 rebounds per game in the NBA. He won a title with the Milwaukee Bucks back in 2021. But since then, he’s appeared in just 37 total games.

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Vince Carter reveals NBA’s dunk contest plans that featured top stars

Vince Carter reveals the NBA’s dunk contest plans that featured top stars, including Lebron James and Kobe Bryant.

[autotag]Vince Carter[/autotag] reveals NBA’s dunk contest plans that featured the biggest stars but failed due to lack of participation.

According to Carter, the NBA schemed up every hoop fan’s dream of a slam dunk contest that would’ve featured Lebron James, Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant, and Carter himself. The story was revealed on Fanduel’s flagship NBA show, Run it Back, and caught the attention of the masses as speculation took over on why the dream dunk contest did not happen.

The story becomes even more bizarre when it is revealed that each star would’ve walked away with 1 million dollars each, giving a hefty incentive to put on a show for the crowd. Fans pinpointed James as why, seeing the other three testing their luck in the competition.

Undoubtedly there is no way to confirm or deny why this lineup didn’t take place, but it’s fun to think about what could’ve been arguably the greatest dunk contest of all time.

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Social media reacts to George Karl calling Carmelo Anthony overrated

Social media reacts to former UNC player turned NBA head coach George Karl calling Carmelo Anthony overrated.

Many damaged coach-player relationships have existed in sports, but none has had the amount of bad blood like former UNC player turned NBA coach [autotag]George Karl[/autotag] and [autotag]Carmelo Anthony[/autotag].

Karl coached Anthony for the Denver Nuggets, and ever since their breakup that saw Anthony get traded to the New York Knicks, the two have shared jabs. Well, we now have a bit more insight into what went wrong between the two, with Anthony describing how everything went wrong as soon as Karl was hired for the head coaching job.

Karl already had a coaching career that spoke for itself with 16 seasons already under his belt, including the 90s Seattle Sonics team led by Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, and Sam Perkins. However, never getting the ultimate prize of an NBA championship, Karl had plenty to prove and was paired up with the 3rd overall pick to get that job done.

Anthony revealed on his Podcast that in the first meeting with Karl, he called him overrated. Karl confirmed this story on the X platform while sharing the viral snippet.

 

The wild exchange sent social media into a frenzy, with hoop fans taking sides between the two. Since posting the snippet Friday, it has garnered more than 5 million views.

Let’s take a look at how social media reacted to Karl calling Anthony overrated.

Theo Pinson has impressive performance

Theo Pinson was an integral part of UNC’s 2017-2018 National Championship-winning team. What did he do in NBA G-League action Friday night?

Theo Pinson brought a little bit of everything to the UNC men’s basketball program from 2014-2018.

Pinson steadily improved his scoring ability over his four years, averaging a collegiate-high 10.3 points per game during the Tar Heels’ national championship season in 2017-2018, but he was primarily known for his passing, defense and occasional thunderous dunks.

No one selected Pinson in the 2018 NBA Draft, but he signed with the Brooklyn Nets as an undrafted free agent. Pinson also played with the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks, recording his first career triple-double during the Mavs’ last game of their 2022-2023 campaign.

Pinson re-joined the Texas Legends, Dallas’ G-League affiliate, on October 29 last year in hopes of one day being promoted to the Mavericks.

His latest effort might earn him a call-up.

On Friday, Feb. 9 in Texas’ 135-128 over the Memphis Hustle, Pinson recorded a double-double by scoring 11 points and dishing out a whopping 20 assists.

In Pinson’s highlights above, the thing you can easily identify most is his exceptional passing ability – particularly in the full-court. You might also recognize one recipient of Pinson’s dimes – Justin Jackson, another former Tar Heel.

Pinson might be hard-pressed for playing time in Dallas, as their guard and forward rotation includes stars Luke Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the newly-acquired PJ Washington, but Pinson at least warrants a look.

I’m not saying he needs to start in the NBA, but Pinson would certainly provide valuable minutes off the bench.

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RJ Davis surpasses this Tar Heel Hoops legend on all-time scoring list

UNC basketball standout RJ Davis passed Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list during Tuesday’s game.

The level of stardom RJ Davis has risen to this year is a major reason why the UNC men’s basketball team – for the most part – looks like a Final Four contender.

Outside of consecutive Tuesday losses to Georgia Tech and Clemson, neither of whom have a winning record in ACC play, North Carolina is winning games by combining its high-scoring offense with a newfound defensive strength. UNC has both scored 100 points three times this year (Tennessee, Charleston Southern, Syracuse) and played through an impressive stretch that spanned through January, in which it limited 10 consecutive opponents to 70 or fewer points.

Every Tar Heel is contributing in some shape or form, but it’s Davis showing out mostly on the offensive end. He leads the ACC in scoring and ranks 11th nationally at 21.3 points per game, sandwiched between New Hampshire’s Clarence Daniels and North Carolina A&T’s Landon Glasper.

Davis was also one of the few bright spots in UNC’s loss to Clemson Tuesday night, scoring 22 points to finish third amongst all scorers. He shot under 33 percent from the field and just 60 percent from the charity stripe, but drained five 3-point attempts.

On one of Davis’ free throw makes, giving him 1,789 career points in baby blue, Davis moved himself up to 15th on the Tar Heels’ all-time scoring list

Who’d he pass, exactly?

Michael Jordan – the GOAT? Yes, the same Michael Jordan who: helped North Carolina capture the 1992 National Championship over Georgetown, went a perfect 6-for-6 in the NBA Finals as a Chicago Bull and became a 14-time NBA All-Star.

MJ ended his UNC career with 1,788 points in three seasons. There’s no word from MJ yet on Davis surpassing him in the record books, but I imagine he’s smiling somewhere.

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Leaky Black makes first career NBA start on Monday night

Leaky Black spent five years entertaining UNC basketball fans. He got the chance of a lifetime in the NBA on Monday, Feb. 5.

Odds are, every young athlete’s dream is to play their sport at the highest possible level.

Nowadays, you’ll see kids eating, sleeping and breathing sports. This means sacrificing time at home for travel sports, spending their rare free time watching collegiate players or the pros and – to further improve their skill sets, train with the best.

The young athlete I’m writing about in this story is Leaky Black, the former 5-year UNC basketball player who is now a member of the Charlotte Hornets.

Black originally signed a 2-way contract with Charlotte on July 19 last year, meaning he splits time with the Hornets and their G-League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm.

He’s been playing with Charlotte regularly and – on Monday night, started an NBA game for the first time.

Black did a little bit of everything in the Hornets’ 125-119 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night – scoring two points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out two assists in 16 minutes.

This move likely isn’t permanent, but was needed with Charlotte having three guards (LaMelo Ball, Cody Martin, Frank Ntilikina) listed on the injury report.

Having a versatile guard-forward like Black to count on, though, will certainly benefit a young, struggling Hornets team in the immediate future.

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Rasheed Wallace has some criticism on UNC legend Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan and Rasheed Wallace were two of the greatest players to don a UNC basketball uniform. What did Wallace have to say about MJ?

Did former Tar Heel Rasheed Wallace hit his head on something recently?

Wallace was a great collegiate player, highlighted by his 1995 First Team All-ACC honor and 16.6 points per game average, but he wasn’t Michael Jordan.

We all know MJ is the GOAT. He has a list of accolades that could write an entire book, but we’ll highlight the fact that he was a 1982 NCAA Champion, 1984 collegiate player of the year, a 14-time NBA All-Star and a perfect 6-for-6 in the NBA Finals.

MJ was a prolific scorer, but it doesn’t get talked about enough how he was also a 9-time member of the All-NBA Defensive First Team.

Even though MJ was a great defender, Wallace doesn’t seem to think so.

“Mike wasn’t all that good of a defender,” Wallace said in a recent interview. “I’ve seen this mother****** get his a** bust where he couldn’t stop a mother****** – against JR Rider, probably against Clyde Drexler, s*** don’t forget the early Joe Dumars. And I’m not saying that he didn’t play defense, I’m just saying that his defense wasn’t as high as most other cats at that time. I couldn’t put him on like 10 or 11 consecutive First Team All-Defense joints.”

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion – including Wallace. I don’t know if MJ ever hurt Wallace’s feelings, but Wallace saying MJ wasn’t a good defender is mind-boggling.

In comparison, Wallace wasn’t named NBA First Team All-Defense once. He was a prolific shot-blocker, though, averaging more than a block per game across 18 games.

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Leaky Black helps seal win for Charlotte Hornets

Charlotte Hornets forward Leaky Black made a big impact in the team’s win over Minnesota on Monday night.

Former North Carolina Tar Heel standout Leaky Black has made an impact with the Charlotte Hornets and on Monday, it helped result in a road win.

Despite a big game from Karl-Anthony Towns, the Hornets managed to pull off the win on the road at Minnesota. With a 126-125 lead late in the fourth quarter, Black blocked a drive by Towns that would have given them the lead.

He was then fouled with 1.7 seconds left and went to the line to make both free throws for the 128-125 lead and eventual win.

Black hasn’t played much this season, appearing in just 12 games for the Hornets, averaging 5.3 minutes per game. During those appearances, he’s averaged 1.7 points per game while shooting 61.5 percent from the field.

The good news is that when he got the chance to make a play in a big game on Monday, he made the most of it to help his team get a win.

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Pete Nance Jr. continuing family ties, signs 10-day contract with Cavs

Pete Nance averaged 10 points and six rebounds per game during his lone season at UNC. He is now officially on an NBA roster – who with?

The Cleveland Cavaliers are one of the NBA’s bright, young and talented teams.

Led by All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell and shot blocking maestro Jarrett Allen, Cleveland sits at fourth in the Eastern Conference standings. The Cavs are behind the Boston Celtics (top seed), Milwaukee Bucks (second) and Philadelphia 76ers, who are all NBA finals contenders.

Most people might know the Cavs for LeBron James, who’s in every G.O.A.T argument with former UNC superstar Michael Jordan.

What basketball fans might not know, though, is Cleveland has deep family ties.

Those family ties include newly-signed Pete Nance, the former Tar Heel who – on Tuesday, Jan. 16 – signed a 10-day contract.

If this transaction sounds familiar, it’s because it does. Nance originally signed with Cleveland on Sept. 13 last year – after going undrafted in the 2023 NBA Draft. His play with the Cleveland Charge (13.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game), the Cavs’ G-League affiliate, earned him a trial run in the big leagues.

Basketball fans might recognize Pete’s older brother, Larry Jr. Larry was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2015, spent 2017-2021 with the Cavs, played a season in Portland (Ore.) and is now in Year 3 with the New Orleans Pelicans.

Larry Sr., the eldest Nance, has enjoyed the most successful NBA career so far. He was a 3-time All-Star, a 1989 member of the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team, a Slam Dunk Contest Champion and – his greatest honor of all – having his number 22 retired by Cleveland.

Pete had a lot of high expectations coming into Chapel Hill, with many hoping he’d step in right away and replace Brady Manek’s production. Nance played solid basketball, averaging 10 points and six rebounds per game, but he failed to live up to his lofty expectations.

Here’s to a successful NBA career for the youngest Nance!

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