UNC stoops to embarrassing new low to try and sell Michael Malone to recruits

When you hire a coach who hasn't worked at the college level in 25 years - and who has never been a head coach at this level - you have to get creative to try and sell your program.

That's especially true when you're at a program that, while a blue blood, hasn't had an NBA All-Star of your own since 2008. So you have to credit UNC for the creativity it displayed on Saturday night when trying to sell the vision of the program under Michael Malone, even if it fell short of the mark and was completely and totally embarrassing.

UNC tries to give credit to Michael Malone for the development of LeBron James, Steph Curry, and others

Come on, man.

LeBron James is LeBron James. LeBron James would have been LeBron James if you or I were on the Cavaliers staff when he first got in the league.

Malone was an assistant coach for the Cavs from 2005-2010 during James' first stint in Cleveland. I'm sure he sends the new UNC coach a "thank you" card every Christmas for the impact he had on his career.

If that wasn't ridiculous enough, the graphic also included the likes of Steph Curry, Nikola Jokic, and Chris Paul, among others.

Paul's inclusion on the graphic is particularly funny, considering he was in his sixth year in the league already and had two Top 5 finishes in MVP voting before Malone made his way to New Orleans for one single season as an assistant coach. That season also happened to be Paul's worst in terms of scoring output, but who's counting?

Curry's best years came after Malone left to become the head coach of the Sacramento Kings.

And with the Kings, Malone was fired in just his second season on the job. Despite that short tenure, he still gets credited with the development of DeMarcus Cousins. Sure, man.

The Tar Heels know they are swimming upstream to keep up with Jon Scheyer and Duke in both high school recruiting and in the Transfer Portal. They're doing whatever they can to try to reach recruits, even if it means embarrassing themselves.