North Carolina basketball now has its first general manager in program history. Early Tuesday morning, the news of Tandem Sports + Entertainment president and founder Jim Tanner being hired by the Tar Heels for the said position was reported by Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
“Sources: The University of North Carolina is hiring long-time NBA agent Jim Tanner as general manager, @hoopshype has learned. Tanner, an alum of UNC and President of Tandem Sports & Entertainment, represented Hall of Famers Grant Hill, Dominique Wilkins, Tim Duncan and Ray Allen,” Scotto shared in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Tanner, who studied at North Carolina and finished with a bachelor’s degree in English literature there, is, as mentioned by Scotto, known more for his work in the professional ranks as an agent. He is joining North Carolina basketball which is in the middle of its fourth season with Hubert Davis at the helm of the program as the head coach.
Currently unranked, the Tar Heels made it to the NCAA national title game in 2022, Hubert’s first season as the team’s head coach, but lost to the Kanas Jayhawks. North Carolina did not make it to the Big Dance the following campaign despite being ranked No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press poll. In the 2023-24 season, the Tar Heels reached the Sweet Sixteen round as a No. 1 seed.
Apart from the players mentioned by Scotto, Tanner also has the likes of Desmond Bane of the Memphis Grizzlies, Cam Thomas of the Brooklyn Nets, Jarrett Allen of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Jeremy Sochan of the San Antonio Spurs on his list of NBA clients. He also used to represent Grizzlies star point guard Ja Morant before they parted ways last February.
North Carolina basketball’s move to hire Tanner is a sign of the changing landscape in the college ranks, especially in the age of NIL (name, image and likeness).
“Yes, we’re going to hire a GM,” Davis shared back in February (h/t Sherrell McMillan of Inside Carolina). “We need a director of marketing and fundraising for NIL, for program needs… The old model for Carolina basketball just doesn’t work, it’s not sustainable. It has to build out because there’s so many things in play with NIL, the transfer portal, agents, international players. You just need a bigger staff to be able to maintain things, and you need a bigger staff so I can do what I’m supposed to be doing, (which) is coaching basketball.”
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