The Hurricanes were a few months away from bringing their basketball program back after a 14 season hiatus following the 1985 NBA Draft lottery. That lottery brought out cries of it being fixed when the New York Knicks landed Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing over the Phoenix Suns.
It took the Hurricanes 14 seasons before they would even have a first round pick during the lottery era. Senior Forward Tim James was the 25th pick of the first round in the 1999 NBA Draft by the hometown Miami Heat.
Only two other Hurricanes have been selected in the first round since James.