He first made a name for himself on the hardwood playing at Chapel Hill for its late Hall of Fame head coach. That led him to becoming one of the NBA’s top scoring guards for 15 seasons, first in the “Valley of the Sun.” Then in the “Colorado Rockies,” and for a cup of coffee in “Rip City.” Following his playing career, this said player became a broadcaster for the boys from the “Colorado Rockies.” He then became a pro basketball scout in D.C. Three Thursdays ago, the NBA and basketball world said goodbye to this dynamic scoring guard.
On Thursday, Nov. 2, Walter Davis, who
played 15 seasons in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets, and the
Portland Trail Blazers passed away from natural causes in Charlotte, NC. He was
69 years old.
Davis was a six-time All-Star (1978-81,
1984, & 1987) and two-time All-NBA Second Team selection (1978, & 1979)
in his 15 NBA season, where he averaged 18.9 points on 51.1 percent shooting in
1,033 games played (373 starts). He is also part of the North Carolina Sports
Hall of Fame and was named in 2002 to the Atlantic Coastal Conference (ACC)
Anniversary squad.
Today, Davis is the Suns all-time leading
scorer at 15,666 points.
Suns All-Time Leading
Scorer *Hall Of Famer
1) Walter Davis 15,666 6) Dick Van Arsdale 12,060
2) Alvan Adams 13,910 7)
Amar’e Stoudemire 11,035
3) Devin Booker 12,782 8)
*Steve Nash 10,172
4) Kevin Johson 12,747 9)
*Paul Westphal 9,564
5) Shawn Marion 12,134 10) Larry
Nance, Sr. 8,430
In a statement via social media (X;
formerly Twitter), the Suns (@Suns) said, “We are heartbroken by the passing of
Suns legend Walter Davis, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer and a member
of our Ring of Honor.”
Born in Pineville, NC on Sept. 9, 1954,
the youngest of 13 children born between 1937 and 1954, Davis basketball
journey began at South Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, NC where he led
the Sabres to three state titles and lost only four games along the way.
Davis following high school starred at
Chapel Hill for the North Carolina Tar Heels under the late Hall of Fame head coach
Dean Smith.
He made his mark as a collegiate early on
as a freshmen where he hit a buzzer-beating jumper against Atlantic, Coastal
Conference (ACC) rival, the Duke University Blue Devils that sent the game in
overtime.
In college, Davis, who was affectionately
called “Sweet D” for his effortless, smooth style of play ability was an
unstoppable scoring force as the head of the snake of one of the top collegiate
basketball programs in the nation at the time.
Davis registered 1,863 points, 670
rebounds, and 409 assists in his career at North Carolina on his way to being a
two-time All-ACC honoree as a junior (1976) and senior (1977).
In between his junior and senior seasons
at UNC, Davis helped to lead the 1976 USA Men’s Basketball squad to the Gold Medal
at the 1976 Olympic games in Montreal, Quebec.
As a senior, Davis helped to lead the Tar
Heels to the ACC Tournament title and a berth in the 1977 NCAA Tournament title
game, where they lost 67-59 to the Marquette University Golden Eagles.
At the conclusion of his four-year career
with the Tar Heels, Davis scored in double-figures in 106 games for the Tar Heels,
ranking fourth on the school’s all-time list. That trails only former teammate Phil
Ford, Sam Perkins, and Tyler Hansbrough.
Ford said that he and Davis were the best
of friends going back five decades to their late high school years in North
Carolina to their time as teammates at UNC, up to the passing of Davis.
Ford said recently that it was Davis,
Tommy LaGarde, and current General Manager and President of Basketball Operations
for the Charlotte Hornets Mitch Kupchak that hosted him on his recruiting trip
at North Carolina and they all became “great friends.”
“When we were in school together, he [Davis]
and I were best friends. He was the best man at my wedding and I was the best
man at his,” Ford said in a statement.
“Throughout the last 50 years, we’ve
remained in contact with each other and were best friends to each other. He
loved me and I loved him. He was a great, great, great, guy that happened to be
a great basketball player. I’ve always said he could have been selected MVP in
the 1975 ACC Tournament just as much as I was. ”
“I am going to miss him dearly. I’m happy
I got to see him a couple of weeks ago in Chapel Hill, but this is very hard. I
would like to believe he’s in a better place right now but I’m going to dearly
miss my friend….I’m getting calls from people all around the country-John
Lucas, Scott May, Quinn Buckner, David Thompson. Everybody thought the world
about Walt, just like all of us Carolina players and fans did.”
“I’m blessed we were teammates and
friends, and I thank God I had him in my life all these years.”
Davis, who is No. 10 on the Tar Heels’
all-time scoring list led North Carolina to the 1977 NCAA Championship game,
where they lost to the Marquette University Golden Eagles.
“This is a sad, said day with the passing of Walter Davis, one of our all-time great basketball players and even nicer person,” former Tar Heels head coach (2003-21) and Kansas University head coach (1988-2003) and Hall of Famer Roy Williams, who was Smith’s assistant (1978-88) said in a statement on Nov. 2.
The three-time NCAA champion also said
about Davis, “Coach [Dean] Smith and Coach [Bill] Guthridge used to rave about
how much fun it was to coach Walter. I got to watch him as a fan and loved
getting to know him later. The big shot to end the ‘eight points in 17 seconds
game against Duke will stay with us forever, as will many other fantastic moments.
Walter was a truly great Tar Heel.”
The basketball legacy of Davis’s family at
North Carolina has continued under current head coach in his nephew Hubert
Davis, who played 12 seasons in the NBA (1992-2004) for the New York Knicks
Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, and
then New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets.
Hubert, after nine seasons as an assistant
at North Carolina on Williams’ staff, is now in his third season as the Tar
Heels head coach.
The basketball journey Davis continue in the
NBA, first with the Phoenix Suns, who drafted him No. 5 overall in the 1977 NBA
Draft.
Davis made an immediate impact for then
late head coach John MacLeod where he averaged 24.2 points and six rebounds on
52.6 percent from the field in 81 games played (all starts). Those stats earned
Davis the 1977-78 Rookie of the Year and made the All-Rookie First Team.
In was the first of three straight seasons
and one of six seasons where Davis averaged over 20 points per game. He
averaged 23.6 points in 1978-79 and 1986-87; 21.5 points in 1979-80; 20 points
in 1983-84; and 21.8 points in 1985-86.
On Feb. 25, 1983, Davis set an NBA-record
where he scored his first 34 points on perfect shooting of 15/15 from the floor
and 4/4 at the free throw line before he missed a jumper with under a minute
left in the game.
Davis surpassed the previous record holder
of Hall of Famer Larry Costello, who made all of his scoring attempts on his
way to 32 points in a game for the then Syracuse Nationals (now the Philadelphia
76ers).
When came to team success, Davis helped
the Suns get back to the Western Conference Finals in his second NBA season of
1978-79, but they lost in seven games to the then Seattle Supersonics (now
Oklahoma City Thunder). It was their first appearance since 1976, falling 4-2
in the NBA Finals to the NBA champion Boston Celtics.
After three straight setbacks in the West
Semifinals, two of those to the eventual five-time NBA champion “Showtime” Los
Angeles Lakers of the 1980s, the Suns led by Davis got back to the West Finals
in 1984, but once again were up ended by the Lakers in six games.
Davis in the 1984 postseason averaged 24.9
points and 6.4 assists on 53.5 percent shooting.
“I tried to do everything that I can that
will help the team win and that’s playing the way I was taught how to play,”
Davis said back in 1984.
During his time with the Suns, Davis
earned the nickname “The Greyhound” for his speedy style and sleek physique. Now
retired longtime play-by-play broadcaster Al McCoy had many nicknames for Davis
that ranged from “The Candyman,” his aforementioned collegiate nickname “Sweet
D,” and “The Man with the Velvet Touch.”
“Walter Davis was and always will be to me
the man with the ‘Velvet Touch,’” Mr. McCoy, the Hall of Famer said. “He was ‘Mr.
Smooth.’ He was ‘Satin.’ He was ‘Silk,’ and that was how he played the game.”
Following that run to the West Finals in
1983-84, the Suns lost in the First-Round 3-0 to the eventual NBA champion
Lakers again 3-0 and missed the Playoffs for the next three springs.
A major part of the Suns’ decline was
behind the recurring back problems of Davis and an ugly drug scandal, where he
was called to testify on illegal drug use by his Suns teammates in exchange for
immunity from being prosecuted. On two occasions, Davis entered rehab to deal
with cocaine addiction.
At age 33 and at the conclusion of his
contract at the end of the 1987-88 NBA campaign, the Suns attempted to bring
back Davis on a one-year deal at half of his salary.
Davis decided to take his talents
elsewhere and signed a two-year, $1.35 million deal with the Nuggets.
In his first two seasons with the boys
from the “Colorado Rockies,” Davis played well averaging 15.6 points and 49.8
percent from the field and 17.5 points on 48.1 percent from the floor in 1988-89
and 1989-90 respectably off the bench.
Unfortunately, those productive seasons by
Davis playing alongside Hall of Famer Alex English, Lafayette “Fat” Lever, Blair
Rassmussen, Dan Schayes, and Joe Barry Carroll, and coached by first Nuggets
legend Doug Moe and then Paul Westhead.
Davis got out of the blocks well in
1990-91 averaging 18.7 points on 47.4 percent from the floor in 39 games played
(13 starts). In the early part of that season, Davis was part of a three-team
deal that sent him to the Trail Blazers, teaming up with a championship caliber
squad of Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Bucks Williams, the late
Kevin Duckworth, and the late Jerome Kersey, the late Clifford Robinson, and
Hall of Fame head coach Rick Adelman.
Davis averaged 6.1 points on 44.6 percent
shooting in 32 games in the regular season off the bench for the Trail Blazers.
The Trail Blazers that season made the Playoffs as the No. 1 Seed in the Western
Conference but lost 4-2 in the Western Conference Finals to the Lakers. Davis
only averaged just 3.3 points in 13 postseason games in 1991.
Davis closed his 15-year career back with
the Nuggets in 1991-92 where he averaged 9.9 points on 45.9 percent shooting in
46 games played off the bench.
In the years that followed his playing
days, Davis became a broadcaster for the Nuggets alongside one of the legendary
Albert brothers Al Albert.
Davis then became a professional scout for
the then Washington Bullets (now Wizards).
There was also a repairing of the
fractured relationship between Davis and the Suns and in 1994, the Suns retired
his No. 6 jersey and enshrined him in their “Ring of Honor” a decade later.
On the night of the Suns 126-104 victory
versus the Utah Jazz on Oct. 28, 2023, they reintroduced Davis and gifted him a
commemorative watch from new owner Mat Ishbia in celebration of the team’s
revamped version of their “Ring of Honor.”
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