University of North Carolina Athletics
Worthy Enters Hall of Fame on Friday Night
September 5, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Sept. 5, 2003
Springfield, Mass. -- Former University of North Carolina men's basketball star James Worthy will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday night, becoming the seventh Tar Heel to be enshrined. The others are coaches Larry Brown, Ben Carnevale, Dean Smith and Frank McGuire and players Billy Cunningham and Bob McAdoo.
Worthy was the MVP of the 1982 Final Four, leading the Tar Heels to Smith's first national championship. Worthy, a junior in '82, was named National Player of the Year that season and turned professional early, becoming the first overall pick of the Los Angeles Lakers.
A seven-time NBA All-Star and winner of three world championship teams in the 1980s with the Lakers, Worthy was named one of the 50 greatest NBA players of all-time in 1997.
Smith, Worthy's coach during his three-year stint at Carolina from 1979-82, will introduce Worthy at the induction ceremony.
Click on the links below to read tributes to Worthy and his legacy:
Worthy Was Always Big Game
ESPN.com/by Sam Smith
James Worthy always was easy to overlook. In college, he played with Michael Jordan, and perhaps his greatest college game symbolized his pro career. He was the best player on the floor that night in 1982, the most outstanding player of the 1982 NCAA tournament when his North Carolina team won the national championship. Yet, the only time you see highlights of that game, it's of Jordan's winning shot.
Basketball Gave Worthy a Chance, Ultimate Honor
Charlotte Observer/by Rick Bonnell
Growing up in Gastonia, James Worthy never expected to make a living playing basketball. So months after learning he'd been elected to the Hall of Fame, he says he's still overwhelmed by his own good fortune.
