HUBERT DAVIS | Position: Guard Born: 5/17/70, Winston-Salem, College: North Carolina Height: 6' 5" Weight: 183 lbs. Stats |
Background: The epitome of a pure shooter, Hubert Davis has established himself as an important backcourt contributor for the New York Knicks and one of the league's premier three-point marksmen. Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he is the nephew of NBA great Walter Davis, who played guard and forward for the Phoenix Suns, the Denver Nuggets, and the Portland Trail Blazers from 1977 to 1992. Like his uncle, Hubert Davis went to college at North Carolina. He helped the Tar Heels reach the NCAA Final Four in his junior year in 1990-91 when he scored 13.3 points per game. As a senior, he poured in a healthy 21.4 points per game.
In search of perimeter shooting, the Knicks claimed Davis with the 20th overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft. He saw limited action as a rookie, appearing in 50 games and averaging 5.4 points. He came off the bench in the first 22 games of the 1993-94 season and was averaging 9.4 points when he broke his hand in a game against the Atlanta Hawks. After missing 25 contests, he returned to action as a starter, replacing the injured John Starks. In the final 27 games of the regular season he contributed 12.9 points per contest. Davis then moved back to the bench behind Starks during the Knicks' playoff run to the NBA Finals.
Davis was the Knicks' first guard off the bench for much of the 1994-95 season. He scored in double figures for the second straight year and led the team in both three-point percentage and field-goal percentage. His .455 clip from long range ranked fourth in the NBA.
Transactions: Selected by the New York Knicks in the first round (20th pick overall) of the 1992 NBA Draft.
1994-95: Davis was the only New York Knicks player to appear in all 82 games during the 1994-95 season. He received the bulk of the team's reserve playing time in the backcourt, playing 20.7 minutes per contest while coming off the bench in 78 of his appearances. Davis excelled from beyond the three-point arc, leading the team and finishing fourth in the NBA with a .455 percentage. He also logged the best free-throw percentage on the club at .808, while putting up 10.0 points per game.
A consistent performer throughout the season, Davis topped 20 points in eight games and led the club in scoring four times. He hit for his season high on November 16 against the Los Angeles Lakers, pouring in 27 points. In a 13-game stretch spanning late March and most of April, he averaged 12.5 points while shooting .524 from the field and .500 from three-point range. In an April 21 contest against the Boston Celtics he led the Knicks to a 99-92 win with a team-high 20 points.
The Knicks finished the season at 55-27 and got past the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs before falling to the Indiana Pacers in the conference semifinals. Davis came off the bench in all 11 of the Knicks' postseason games but struggled, shooting below .400 from the field and averaging only 4.2 points.
1993-94: With his stock steadily rising, Davis squeezed out veteran Rolando Blackman as the backup to shooting guard John Starks in 1993-94. When healthy, Davis was effective as an offensive spark off the bench. Despite ranking eighth on the New York Knicks in minutes played (1,333), he was the club's fourth-leading scorer with 11.0 points per game. However, he also sustained the first injury of his two-year career-a broken hand that sidelined him for 25 games in January and February. Overall, he appeared in 56 games, starting the final 27 regular-season contests after Starks went down with a knee injury.
Davis was the Knicks' most accurate three-point shooter, hitting 53 of his 132 attempts for a .402 percentage, which also ranked 10th in the NBA. He was simply spectacular on March 11 against the Boston Celtics, when he hit 10 of 11 attempts from the field-including 5 of 5 three-pointers-en route to 25 points. Less than two weeks later, on March 24, he set a career high with 32 points against the Timberwolves at Minnesota.
Although Davis averaged only 5.3 points in the postseason, he was as crucial to the Knicks' success as any member of the team. In Game 5 of a hard-fought Eastern Conference Semifinals series against the Chicago Bulls, Davis was fouled by Scottie Pippen while attempting a three-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining. Davis calmly hit both free throws, bringing the Knicks from an 86-85 deficit to an 87-86 victory. Having maintained the home-court advantage, New York went on to win the series in seven games.
1992-93: Hubert Davis averaged 21.4 points as a senior at the University of North Carolina, becoming the first Tar Heels player to post a 20-point scoring average since Brad Daugherty in 1985-86. The nephew of former Tar Heels player and NBA guard-forward Walter Davis, Hubert canned 197 three-pointers in his four collegiate seasons, ranking second to Jeff Lebo (211) on the school's all-time list.
The New York Knicks liked Davis's pure shooting abilities and selected him with the 20th overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft. He didn't wait long to show his stuff, scoring a season-high 22 points against the Bullets at Washington in the Knicks' fourth game.
The rest of the season did not go as well, as Davis battled for playing time with veterans John Starks and Rolando Blackman. He fell in and out of Coach Pat Riley's rotation, totaling 50 appearances for the year and averaging 5.4 points in 16.3 minutes per game. He led the Knicks in scoring once during the season, with 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting against the Dallas Mavericks on February 16.
Riley elected to go with Starks and Blackman through most of the postseason. Davis appeared in 7 of New York's 15 playoff games and averaged 4.4 points.
| Sea. | Team | G | Min. | FG | 3Pt. | FT | Reb. | Ast. | Stl. | Blk. | Tot. | PG |
| 92-93 | New York | 50 | 815 | .438 | .316 | .796 | 56 | 83 | 22 | 4 | 269 | 5.4 |
| 93-94 | New York | 56 | 1333 | .471 | .402 | .825 | 67 | 165 | 40 | 4 | 614 | 11.0 |
| 94-95 | New York | 82 | 1697 | .480 | .455 | .808 | 110 | 150 | 35 | 11 | 820 | 10.0 |
| 95-96 | New York | 74 | 1773 | .486 | .476 | .868 | 123 | 103 | 31 | 8 | 789 | 10.7 |
| Career Totals: | 262 | 5618 | .474 | .449 | .830 | 356 | 501 | 128 | 27 | 2492 | 9.5 | |
| 1996 Playoffs: | 8 | 145 | .548 | .526 | .818 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 6.6 | |
| Playoff Totals: | 49 | 821 | .409 | .373 | .750 | 46 | 44 | 12 | 8 | 251 | 5.1 | |
| All-Star Totals: | 0 | 0 | --- | --- | --- | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | |