Hubert Davis Made Sure to Spend NBA Draft Night Alone in 1992

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — On the June night when Hubert Davis was selected No. 20 overall in the 1992 NBA Draft, he purposefully had made sure to be alone.

The North Carolina coach, then a sharpshooting guard coming out of the college ranks, wasn’t in attendance at Memorial Coliseum, where the draft was held in Portland, Ore., and he wasn’t hosting a draft party in Chapel Hill alongside family members and friends. Instead, Davis was by himself at a Best Western hotel, a little more than 3 miles from the UNC campus.

Why did he prefer to experience such a monumental moment in solitude? Davis had become superstitious due to a debacle from two years prior.

After Davis’ sophomore season with the Tar Heels, his teammate Scott Williams entered the 1990 NBA Draft. The big man Williams had been a three-year starter at Carolina and averaged 14.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game as a senior, while shooting better than 55 percent from the field for the third straight season. Williams hosted a party on the night of the 1990 draft, which Davis said he attended. But Williams, who went on to play 15 years in the NBA, never was selected that night and eventually signed with the Chicago Bulls as an undrafted free agent.

“That really scared me,” Davis said in March during an airing of his radio show, while taking a moment to look back. “And so on (my) draft night, it was predicted I was going to get picked in the first round. But I didn’t know, so I said I didn’t want to be around anybody. And so I checked into the Best Western hotel.”

Davis, a 43.5 percent career 3-point shooter across his four seasons at UNC from 1988-92, became a regular starter during his final two college seasons. As a senior, he earned All-ACC second-team honors while averaging 21.4 points per game on a crisply efficient 51-43-83 shooting split (field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, free throw percentage).

The New York Knicks picked Davis in the first round of the 1992 draft with the 20th choice, after Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Christian Laettner were the first three selections at the top of the draft class. Davis went on to enjoy a 12-year playing career in the NBA that included stints with the Knicks, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons and New Jersey Nets. Davis, who’s 54 years old now, still remembers the moment his NBA career officially began, back within the confines of that Best Western hotel.

“Pat Riley, who was the head coach of the New York Knicks, called Coach (Dean) Smith,” Davis said. ” ‘Where’s Hubert?’ And (Smith said), ‘he’s at the Best Western.’ They called the Best Western front desk, and the front desk called me and said, ‘would you take a call from Pat Riley?’ They connected me to Pat Riley and he says, ‘I’m taking you with the 20th pick.’ And that’s how I found out I was getting drafted.”

The 2024 NBA Draft starts on Wednesday night (June 26), and will be a two-day event for the first time. UNC forward Harrison Ingram consistently has been projected to be taken in the second round of this year’s draft. In his lone season with the Tar Heels, the transfer Ingram averaged 12.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, while shooting 38.5 percent from 3-point range. ESPN, for example, forecasts him to go No. 44 overall to the Houston Rockets in its latest mock draft released Monday.

Davis said he celebrated getting drafted three decades ago with a ginger ale, before driving to the nearest convenience store to buy a New York Knicks cap. After that quick purchase, he made his way to Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, donning his new headwear. There, he met up with one of his best friends, Leslie Seigle, who now is his wife.

“I came up to Franklin Street,” Davis said, laughing as he reflected on the memory. “I had a New York Knicks hat on and the first thing that she said to me, and this was before we were dating, she was like, ‘obviously you got picked by the New York Knicks, why are you wearing that?’ And I just took it off, I felt terrible.”