UNC Basketball: Was Chris Paul almost a Tar Heel?

On the women’s college basketball national championship special broadcast, Chris Paul told a very interesting story about the UNC basketball program.

Oh, what could’ve been…

If you tuned into the women’s college basketball national championship game special broadcast, you saw former Wake Forest guard and 12-time NBA All-Star Chris Paul make an appearance. While speaking to Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, Paul’s college recruitment came up, as his comments about the UNC basketball program were certainly eye-popping.

Given that Paul is a Clemmons, North Carolina native, Taurasi asked the NBA veteran if there was any additional pressure to go to a school like North Carolina or Duke. It was here where Paul revealed that the UNC basketball program wanted him, but there was a slight issue with that situation.

"“Carolina wanted me to walk on. They asked me if I could walk on… We couldn’t afford that.”"

After bringing in a big recruiting class in 2022, the Tar Heels were out of available scholarships. Matt Doherty, who was leading the program at the time, asked the North Carolina State Player of the Year to walk on, at least for his first season with the team.

If you go back to an interview with David Laton, his high school coach, from 2014, even he expressed how he felt Paul would’ve been Chapel Hill bound if they had the scholarship to offer:

"“He actually grew up a North Carolina fan. That was his favorite basketball team growing up, but Matt Doherty was there at the time. Doherty told us, and I’m not saying it wasn’t true, but he told us that they didn’t have any more scholarships. When we visited the school he was trying to get Chris to pay his own way for a year. I knew that wasn’t gonna happen.”"

Although the pairing never happened, it ended up working out for both sides.

For Paul, he went on to have an outstanding career for the Deamon Deacons, and has enjoyed a successful career in the NBA.

The Tar Heels, as we all know went on to win the 2005 national title under the direction of Roy Williams, a group led by that 2002 recruiting class that limited the team’s available scholarships.

It’s one of those “what if” types of things, one that will leave UNC basketball fans thinking about what possibly could’ve been.

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