Ford, Phil J. Jr.
Basketball
b. Feb. 9, 1956, Rocky Mount, NC
A four-year starting guard at the University of North Carolina, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Ford was an exceptionally quick, clever ball-handler who could also score. He averaged 20.8 points a game as a senior in 1977-78. A consensus All-American in both 1977 and 1978, he was named college player of the year by the U. S. Basketball Writers Association in 1978, when he also won the Eastman and Wooden Awards.
After his sophomore season, Ford started for the U. S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in 1976.
Ford was the NBA rookie of the year with the Kansas City Kings in 1978-79. However, injuries and alcohol abuse shortened his career. He was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in 1982 and went to the Houston Rockets in 1983. He retired in 1986 after failing to make the Golden State Warriors.
In 482 NBA games, Ford scored 5,594 points, an 11.6 average, and had 3,083 assists, an average of 6.4 per game. He later became a bank executive and spent much of his free time talking to students about alcohol and drug abuse.
In 1988 he returned to North Carolina as an assistant coach, a job he held through the 1999-2000 season.