The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/916614
JANUARY 2018 ■ 41 WHEREARETHEYNOW? BY TIM PEELER I t's one of the few times Kenny Carr didn't need to rely on his ability to rebound. During the economic downturn that started in 2008, Carr's commercial construction business thrived when other businesses of all kinds faltered. Like Carr the player, his business was fundamentally strong. Perhaps that's no accident — Carr has proven to be a shrewd businessman, learn- ing how to survive during earlier downward swings in the economy. "Life presents you with a certain number of opportunities," Carr said. "You have to know when to take advantage of them." Carr, who 40 years ago this year be- came the first NC State basketball player to leave early for professional opportunities, has always made well-calculated business decisions, even if he backed into his two primary vocations, playing professional basketball and being the CEO of his own construction company. He was originally a football player grow- ing up in Washington, D.C., with his sights firmly set on the NFL instead of the NBA. At the age of 14, he played his first orga- nized game of hoops, and took his burly toughness from tight end to swing power forward. And he became a beast on the court. Early in his career at prep basketball power DeMatha Catholic High School, Carr caught the eye of NC State assistant coach Eddie Biedenbach, who had gone to visit Morgan Wootten's practice in the hopes of signing Adrian Dantley. Dantley eventually went to Notre Dame, but Carr was Biedenbach's All-American consolation prize. He was the first of head coach Wootten's recruits to play for Wolf- pack head coach Norman Sloan. He played his freshman season with two-time national player of the year David Thompson before taking over Thompson's reign as the ACC scoring leader. The 6-8 Carr averaged 26.6 points a game in 1976 as a sophomore and 21.0 as a junior. That gave the Wolfpack a string of five league scoring champions, a feat that has never been matched 40 years later. Following Carr's spectacular sophomore season, he was an obvious candidate for the U.S. Olympic team that participated in the 1976 Montreal Games. North Carolina coach Dean Smith was the Olympic coach, and Carr had a good relationship with him. With some of the tryouts at Reynolds Coliseum, as well as UNC's Carmichael Auditorium, it not only gave Carr, but also Tar Heel players Phil Ford, Walter Davis, Mitch Kupchak and Tommy LaGarde, as well as Duke's Tate Armstrong, a home court advantage against significant competition. Smith often said Carr, with motivation, was the most talented player on the team that included Dantley, and Indiana's Quinn Buckner and Scott May. "I remember telling the team then that Kenny Carr was maybe the best player we had, but if he didn't hustle, then we would go with 11 players to the Olympics," the late Smith said in 1996. "From that point on he did pretty well." Carr ended up as the sixth man on the team, averaging 6.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.0 assists on a squad that beat Yu- goslavia in the final game to complete a perfect 6-0 record at the Games. Carr remains the only NC State men's basketball player to ever win a gold medal in the Olympics, though both Tommy Bur- leson and Tom Gugliotta made Olympic rosters. "It was the most fun I ever had play- Carr led the ACC in scoring and was named first-team all-conference as a sophomore and junior. He bypassed his senior year at NC State to enter the 1977 NBA Draft and was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the No. 6 over- all pick. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS Kenny Carr Men's Basketball (1975-77) Age: 62 Living: Portland, Ore. Occupation: CEO of Carr Construction Did You Know? Despite playing just three years in Raleigh, Carr ranks sixth on NCSU's all-time scoring list (1,772 points). His per-game average of 20.6 is second in program history, trailing only David Thompson (26.8). Thompson, with seven, was also the only player with more 40-point games than Carr, who had three with two coming against Duke in 1976. Carr (32) was chosen first-team aa an All-American in 1976 and 1977 by The Sporting News and won a gold medal with Team USA in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS