Walter Davis, whose smooth shooting propelled him to basketball stardom with the University of North Carolina and the Phoenix Suns but who struggled late in his career with drug addiction, died Thursday while visiting family in Charlotte, NC He was 69 years old.
The university announced his death, but did not specify the cause.
Davis, a 6-foot-1 forward, played at North Carolina from 1973 to 1977 for Dean Smith, one of the most successful coaches in college history. He averaged 15.7 points per game over four seasons on Tar Heels teams that also included Bobby Jones, Phil Ford and Mitch Kupchak.
In one of Davis’ signature games, in March 1974, North Carolina was trailing Duke, 86-78, with 17 seconds left. After North Carolina cut the deficit to two points as time expired, Davis tied the game with a shot from a distance estimated to be between 30 and 35 feet. (The basket would count for three points and win the game today, but the three-point shot wasn’t officially introduced by the NCAA until 1986.) North Carolina won in overtime, 96-92.
“I wasn’t trying to testify,” Davis, then a freshman, said afterward. “It wasn’t a desperation shot. I was just trying to do my part, that’s all. I didn’t allow myself to think about anything. I just told myself he could only do two things, go in or come back.”
In 1976 he was a member of the United States team, also coached by Dean Smith, that won a gold medal at the Montreal Olympics. A year later, he led North Carolina with 20 points — and 10 of his team’s last 12 — in a 67-59 loss to Marquette in the final game of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Twice selected to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference teams.
His nephew Hubert is currently the North Carolina coach.
Walter Davis was born on September 9, 1954, in Pineville, NC His high school in Charlotte won three state basketball titles before leaving to attend prep school in Delaware. He arrived in North Carolina in 1973.
In 1977, Davis underwent surgery on a broken finger after North Carolina won the ACC Tournament in his third year. “Before they took me out, I remember looking up and Coach Smith was right there,” he told Ken Rosenthal for his book “Dean Smith: A Tribute” (2001). “I remember seeing him and having the screws go through my finger.”
Davis was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 1977 NBA draft. After averaging 24.2 points per game – the highest average in any season of his career – he was voted the league’s Rookie of the Year. He was consistent in his 11 seasons with Phoenix, averaging 20.5 points per game as a small forward and shooting guard.
During one game in 1983, he scored a league record 34 points (on 15 field goals and four free throws) against Seattle before missing a shot.
“I don’t remember a sweeter shot,” Alvan Adams, one of his teammates, told NBA.com in 2015. “It was a he was afraid shooter. The other team knew it too.”
Chuck Daly, then coach of the Detroit Pistons, told the New York Times in 1987: “Walter is a good shooter until the fourth quarter. Then he becomes a great shooter.”
Davis had two nicknames: Sweet D and Greyhound.
In his final years in Phoenix, Davis struggled with drug problems. In 1986, he spent a month in a drug rehab center to treat cocaine and alcohol addictions. Early next year he told The Times: “The scariest part is knowing it’s a disease I’ll have to work with for the rest of my life.”
When he relapsed in 1987, Davis was kicked out of the league and re-entered a drug rehabilitation center. He also received immunity from prosecution when he agreed to testify against several current and former Suns teammates who were charged with drug offenses.
In his deposition, The Arizona Republic reported, Davis said he first used cocaine in his second season in the majors after being introduced to him by a teammate, Gar Heard. When asked by a prosecutor who else was there, he said, “Pretty much the whole team.”
Later that year, Davis said prosecutors forced him to testify against his teammates.
“I had no choice,” he told Sports Illustrated. “The last thing I wanted to do was blame my teammates and friends. If I knew I was going to do it, I’d probably go to jail.”
Davis left the Suns in 1988 to sign as a free agent with the Denver Nuggets. He was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1991 and then re-signed with Denver, where he played the 1991-92 season before retiring.
Davis averaged 18.9 points per game for his career and played in six All-Star Games.
After his retirement, he worked as an announcer and community ambassador for the Nuggets and as a scout for the Washington Wizards.
Information on survivors was not immediately available.
