Topic: Phil Ford

Phil Jackson Ford Jr. (born February 9, 1956 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina) is a retired American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association. He graduated from Rocky Mount Senior High School in 1974.

Ford played four years of basketball at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After his sophomore season, Ford started for the U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in 1976. While a senior, he averaged 20.8 points a game during that 1977-78 season. In 1978, Ford finished his career at Carolina as the number 1 all time leading scorer in North Carolina history with 2,290 points. Ford was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in May 1991. On December 18, 2008, Tyler Hansbrough surpassed Ford's total making Phil the number 2 scorer in Carolina history.

He also finished his career as the only player in Atlantic Coast Conference history to score over 2,000 points and register at least 600 assists (a record now shared with Travis Best of Georgia Tech and Greivis Vasquez of Maryland). A consensus All-American in 1976, 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, USBWA College Player of the Year and John R. Wooden Awards. In 2002 Ford was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team honoring the fifty best players in ACC history.