Members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2018 were officially revealed Saturday morning, with UNC legend Charlie Scott among those selected.
Scott made history in the fall of 1966 when he became the first black scholarship athlete to attend UNC.
The 6-foot-5-inch guard from Harlem rewarded head coach Dean Smith’s faith in him by posting career averages of 22.1 points and 7.1 rebounds per game as a Tar Heel, and leading the team to back-to-back Final Four appearances in 1968 and 1969,
A two-time All-American and three-time All-ACC selection while in college, Scott would go on to become the 1970 ABA Rookie of the Year while playing for the Virginia Squires. In his second year with the Squires, he set an ABA record by averaging 34.6 points per game for the whole season.
Scott then joined the NBA’s Phoenix Suns for the 1972 campaign, and was named an All-Star in each of his first three years in the league. A trade sent him to the Boston Celtics in 1975, where he would ultimately win an NBA championship playing against the Suns in 1976.
He would go on to play four more years in the NBA after leaving the Celtics in 1977, spending two years with both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets.
For his career in both the ABA and NBA, Scott finished with 14,387 points–all while helping pave the way for an enormous wave of African-American athletes who followed in his footsteps.
Others headlining the class include: Jason Kidd, Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Maurice Cheeks and former Duke standout Grant Hill.
To see the entire Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2018, click here.
Photo via Associated Press
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