When you’re among the top 20 scorers of a basketball program that is 115 years old, exclusion is not what you expect, but it seems Rashad McCants asked for it. As listed by Yahoo Sports, the former NBA star holds the 19th spot in the University of North Carolina’s 20 all-time leading scorers. Despite that, when one of his former teammates was asked if there is any UNC brotherhood, McCants was already counted out of the question. While followers of NCAA basketball might know of McCants’ comments against the program he once played for, his former teammate has offered a deeper insight on how he and possibly others who have had an association with UNC feel about the whole thing.

That former teammate would be Raymond Felton, who, just like Rashad McCants, went on to grace the NBA hardwood. Given the fact that they won the 2005 NCAA championship together, you’d expect them to have each other’s backs. On the contrary, the two have been at each other’s throats for quite some time. Now, McCants has never singled out Felton in his criticism, but his attacks against the program as a whole and his former teammates are something that an ex-Tar Heel would not stand for, especially those who shared the court with him. As for McCants, he has had his reasons to criticise the program, and they’re quite personal.

During one of Gil’s Arenas’ podcast episodes in 2024, Rashad claimed that in the 2005 NCAA final, he was producing “15 points at half, but then my coach decided it wasn’t going to be my show because it was Big Man’s (Sean May’s) birthday.” He added sarcastically that the “[players] on my team were haters,” implying he was unfairly sidelined by coaches and teammates. These remarks accused Williams of favoring other players for trivial reasons. However, when you consider the fact that Sean May had 25 and 10 and was the nation’s best big man, it might’ve made competitive sense to feed him the ball. No wonder Felton finds no ground in Rashad McCants’ trashing of their former college basketball program, so he defended it with all his heart on Podcast P with Paul George, while also opening up on his opinion of his ex-teammate.

Felton revealed that the former Tar Heels are still tight with each other, and he even has a chat group with his teammates from the ’05 NCAA championship. “We just had our 20th anniversary this year… We went back and all got together… without Rashad,” he said. Ouch! The ex-UNC star, who averaged 12.5 points, 6.9 assists, and 4.1 rebounds as a college athlete, further revealed that things could have been different with Rashad. However, his time and again attacks against the program and ex-coach Roy Williams made others take a stand that they’ll stop entertaining what comes off his mouth. But then, claims Felton, things reached a point where he had to draw a line.

“I’m just tired of it. I’m fed up with it… Because now he’s coming at us… Before, it was just about the school and about Coach Williams. Now he’s attacking us. And I just couldn’t take it no more,” Felton said, emphasizing that McCants has always been that type of guy who would land himself in trouble. However, if you think Felton has anything personal against McCants, he cleared the air around those speculations by giving his ex-teammate his flowers.

Well, Rashad did average 17.6 points per game, with one season even hitting the 20 ppg mark for UNC. And the fact that he scored the most points (28) ever by a UNC freshman in their first game tells you why Felton would appreciate him as a hooper, despite other factors. But does that soften Raymond’s stand against McCants? Not one bit, when it comes to the former Minnesota Timberwolves star’s character.

“He’s blaming the school, Coach Williams, and everybody else for his character, for him not playing as long as he should have in the league… When he just needed to look in the mirror and blame himself… Because Coach Williams has nothing to do with the NBA… Carolina basketball has nothing to do with the NBA… He gets in the league and being Rashad and don’t last as long as we did… So basically, he trolling right now,” Felton said. Now, you could’ve disregarded the harsh reality check from Raymond, considering it possible personal differences, if there had not been others from UNC who previously lashed out at McCants.

UNC’s 2017 NCAA champ, who found Rashad McCants a “delusional” being

In one of his latest outbursts, McCants likened his college experience to serving time behind bars, calling former head coach Roy Williams “The Warden.” You can imagine how that landed with the Tar Heel community. And just when the dust seemed to settle, another UNC name has stepped forward—someone who actually knows what it means to leave Chapel Hill on good terms.

Enter Theo Pinson. The 2017 NCAA champion didn’t mince words while reacting on his podcast, To The Baha, where he took direct aim at McCants’ recent claims. Pinson revealed that McCants had tried to make amends with UNC this past year, but hilariously (and somewhat alarmingly) seemed unaware that Roy Williams had already stepped down.

“Well, did you show up to Carolina and try to mend your relationship this past year? Wait a minute. Oh, he didn’t say that on the pod, and you was looking for Coach Williams. Newsflash, dumba–. He don’t coach there no more! First of all, you are delusional. I think the crown is cutting off your circulation to your brain. You have killed all your f—— relationships, you have. You take no accountability. Who the f— do you think you are?”

At this point, it’s safe to say that most of the former UNC stars wish that Rashad McCants would stop spewing hatred about the 115-year-old basketball program, which has witnessed the greatness of the likes of Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, and many more.