Honored North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball players

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill men's basketball program honors fifty-one former players by hanging their jerseys in the rafters of the Dean E. Smith Center, the home to the men's basketball team on the university's campus. Of these, eight are both honored and retired. However, only seven jersey numbers are retired, as honoree Jack Cobb played before jersey numbers were the norm, meaning he had no number to retire. Justin Jackson and Joel Berry are the most recent players to be honored, following the 2016–17 season. Jackson qualified by being named the ACC Player of the Year and a first-team All-American. Berry was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2017 Final Four.

Criteria

North Carolina requires that players must be recognized for excellence for their performance during the regular season, in post-season play, or in the Olympics. Specifically, a player's jersey qualifies for honoring if he receives one or more of the following five awards: first- or second-team All-America on one of the major All-American teams that qualify a player for a consensus All-American designation, an ACC Player of the Year, the Most Valuable Player of a National Championship-winning team (as voted by coaches and teammates), the NCAA basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player of a Final Four team, or a gold medal in basketball at the Olympics.

Additionally, a player can also achieve the even greater honor of having his jersey (along with his uniform number) permanently retired by the University of North Carolina. To attain jersey retirement, a Tar Heel must win one or more of the following six national player of the year awards: Associated Press, National Association of Basketball Coaches, Sporting News, John R. Wooden Award, Oscar Robertson Trophy, or the Naismith College Player of the Year. The (now defunct) Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year award formerly served as a seventh option. The most recent player to merit bestowal of this honor is Tyler Hansbrough, who won all six of the national player of the year awards in his 2007–08 season.

Honored players

Players whose numbers are retired are shown with a blue background.

No.	Name	Years	Criteria met
NC	Cartwright Carmichael	1921–24	First-team All-America
NC	Jack Cobb	1923–26	National Player of the Year
20	George Glamack	1938–41	National Player of the Year, First-team All-America
8	Jim Jordan	1944–46	Second-team All-America
13	John "Hook" Dillon	1945–48	First-team All-America
10	Lennie Rosenbluth	1954–57	National Player of the Year, First-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year
35	Pete Brennan	1955–58	First-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year
40	Tommy Kearns	1955–58	Second-team All-America
12	Lee Shaffer	1957–60	First-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year
22	York Larese	1958–61	Second-team All-America
35	Doug Moe	1958–61	First-team All-America
11	Larry Brown	1960–63	Olympic gold medal
32	Billy Cunningham	1962–65	First-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year
22	Bob Lewis	1964–67	First-team All-America
44	Larry Miller	1965–68	First-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year
33	Charlie Scott	1967–70	Olympic gold medal, First-team All-America
31	Bill Chamberlain	1969–72	Second-team All-America
44	Dennis Wuycik	1969–72	First-team All-America
35	Bob McAdoo	1971–72	First-team All-America
34	Bobby Jones	1971–74	First-team All-America
21	Mitch Kupchak	1972–76	First-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year, Olympic gold medal
24	Walter Davis	1973–77	Olympic gold medal
45	Tommy LaGarde	1973–77	Olympic gold medal, Second-team All-America
12	Phil Ford	1974–78	National Player of the Year, First-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year, Olympic gold medal
31	Mike O'Koren	1976–80	First-team All-America
30	Al Wood	1977–81	Second-team All-America
52	James Worthy	1979–82	National Player of the Year, First Team All-America, MVP of NCAA champions, NCAA Tournament MOP
41	Sam Perkins	1980–84	Olympic gold medal, First-team All-America
23	Michael Jordan	1981–84	National Player of the Year, First Team All-America, ACC Player of the Year, Olympic gold medal
42	Brad Daugherty	1982–86	First-team All-America
30	Kenny Smith	1983–87	First-team All-America
34	J.R. Reid	1986–89	First-team All-America
34	George Lynch	1989–93	MVP of NCAA Champions
00	Eric Montross	1990–94	Second-team All-America
21	Donald Williams	1991–95	NCAA Tournament MOP
42	Jerry Stackhouse	1993–95	First-team All-America
30	Rasheed Wallace	1993–95	Second-team All-America
15	Vince Carter	1995–98	Second-team All-America, Olympic gold medal
33	Antawn Jamison	1995–98	National Player of the Year, First Team All-America, ACC Player of the Year
00	Brendan Haywood	1997–2001	Second-team All-America
40	Joseph Forte	1999–2001	First-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year
2	Raymond Felton	2002–05	MVP of NCAA Champions
42	Sean May	2002–05	First-team All-America, MVP of NCAA Champions, NCAA Tournament MOP
32	Rashad McCants	2002–05	Second-team All-America
50	Tyler Hansbrough	2005–09	National Player of the Year, First Team All-America, ACC Player of the Year, MVP of NCAA Champions
5	Ty Lawson	2006–09	Second-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year, MVP of NCAA Champions
22	Wayne Ellington	2006–09	NCAA Tournament MOP
44	Tyler Zeller	2008–12	Second-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year
40	Harrison Barnes	2010–12	Second-team All-America, Olympic gold medal
5	Marcus Paige	2012–16	Second-team All-America
11	Brice Johnson	2012–16	First-team All-America
44	Justin Jackson	2014–17	First-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year, MVP of NCAA Champions
2	Joel Berry	2014–18	NCAA Tournament MOP
4	R. J. Davis	2020–present	First-team All-America, ACC Player of the Year

References

"Johnson Earns First-Team All-America Honors". GoHeels.com. March 14, 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
Carter, Andrew (March 14, 2016). "Brice Johnson's number 11 headed for Smith Center rafters". News & Observer. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
2016-17 Carolina Basketball Media Guide (PDF). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2016. p. 100. Retrieved 2017-01-30.
"Hansbrough Wins Wooden Award, Sweeping Major Individual Honors". GoHeels.com. Los Angeles: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Associated Press. 2008-04-12. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
Carolina Basketball 2016-17 Fact & Records Book (PDF). Chapel Hill, NC: GoHeels.com. 2016. pp. 164–170. Retrieved 2017-04-20.

v t e North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball
Venues	Bynum Gymnasium (1910–1923) Tin Can (1924–1938) Woollen Gymnasium (1938–1965) Carmichael Auditorium (1965–1986) Dean Smith Center (1986–present)
Rivalries	Duke (Carlyle Cup) Kentucky NC State Wake Forest
Culture & lore	Rameses The Marching Tar Heels Junior varsity team Inside Carolina Four corners offense Blue blood status Dixie Classic/Big Four Jumpman Invitational Tobacco Road Academic-athletic scandal Gambling scandal
People	Head coaches Honorees Honored players NBA draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics; NCAA championships in bolded italics

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North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball players