UNC Basketball: The 15 Tar Heels opposing fans hated most

Rashad McCants

Okay, let’s make this as quick and painless as possible.

Rashad McCants might be the perfect combination of tremendous talent and mercurial behavior, if ever there was such a thing. McCants was just as likely to throw a tantrum on the bench as he was to come in and hit a game-winning shot. You just never knew what you were going to get from him.

A highly regarded player coming out of The New Hampton School in 2002, McCants immediately lived up to his reputation as a big-time scorer. He poured in 17 points per game on 49 percent shooting from the floor, and 41.4 percent from downtown. He started 31 of the Tar Heels’ 35 games that season, playing nearly 30 minutes a contest.

He was just as good the following season, and even increased his scoring output. In Roy Williams first season as the Tar Heels’ head coach, McCants averaged 20 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. His shooting numbers were nearly identical to the season before, and his playing time increased to 32 minutes per game. As a result, he was named first team All-ACC, and third team All-American.

McCants got a lot of press leading up to his junior season, and was even a Sports Illustrated preseason cover athlete. To his credit, he sacrificed individual accolades during the 2004-05 season for the betterment of the team. He still scored 16 points per game, and shot a career-high 42.3 percent from three-point range en route to winning a national championship in 2005.

He declared for the NBA Draft shortly after the season ended, and put together a short and largely unsuccessful four-year career with Timberwolves and Kings. Over the next few years, McCants played basketball in a number of different places including the D-League, China, Lebanon, the Philippines and Venezuela.

And that’s about the time that the wheels fell off.

McCants did an interview for ESPN’s Outside the Lines claiming to have taken phony classes while at the University of North Carolina. He called out his former teammates and Roy Williams, asserting that all of them were not only aware of the situation, but complicit. He doubled down on his initial claim less than a week later, asking the members of the 2004-05 Tar Heels to release their transcripts because, according to McCants, “the truth is there in the transcripts.”

Every other member of the 2005 national title team disputed McCants’ claims about bogus classes in an official statement, while Williams did the same thing in an interview conducted separately from the team.

The moment McCants made his first appearance on ESPN, North Carolina fans collectively disavowed the former Tar Heel. Many of them began acting as if he never existed, refusing to even say his name or acknowledge his time in Chapel Hill. Don’t believe me? Walk into any bar on Franklin Street and mention his name. See what kind of responses you get. I’ll even get comments on social media condemning me for including him in a list of players associated with the UNC basketball program. That’s how deep the hate runs with North Carolina fans and McCants.

Here are just a few examples of North Carolina fans on social media denying the existence of one Rashad McCants.

https://twitter.com/go_heels/status/1087539283978829824

That’s how much his own base hates him — to this day — and nobody really loved him before. That was, in part, because of his selfish play and careless demeanor. He often appeared lazy, and reluctant to buy in to Williams’ system. Other fan bases didn’t like him, either, coming off as a talented but cocky player whose own self-interest and ego reigned supreme.

McCants has toyed around in the Big3 three-on-three league in recent years, and even won a championship in its inaugural season. His performance earned him the honor of Championship MVP.