It’s been a fact of life that UNC has not had much representation on the men’s USA Basketball team in the last few cycles. While it was a common occurrence when it was all college players, and then with the first couple of Dream Teams, the changes in both the college and pro games have made it so you don’t see many Tar Heels on the court.

However, when USA plays for the gold medal today in Paris, there will be a Tar Heel on the sidelines playing an important role.

Dr. Quinton Sawyer: The Unsung Hero

Dr. Quinton Sawyer is one of three athletic trainers that traveled with the USA basketball team to Paris, and as anyone who plays organized sports will tell you, his job is incredibly important in keeping the players in tune to play their best—while still not fully recovered from the grind of an NBA regular season. It’s hard to imagine the comeback against Serbia happening unless the players are in great shape.

Sawyer is one of several members of a family that not only went to UNC, but were in the Marching Tar Heels while in Chapel Hill. If you attended UNC anytime from 1996 to the mid-2010’s, chances are you were in school with a Sawyer. Quinton did both his undergraduate and graduate work at UNC, while getting his Doctorate in Athletic Training at A.T. Still University.

A Journey Through Basketball

The thing is, you’ve likely seen Dr. Sawyer through the years, both in college basketball and the NBA. He was a trainer at Southeastern Louisiana, then moved on to Campbell before spending several years at Michigan State.

After time in East Lansing, he got the promotion to the NBA. First, he spent some time in Phoenix and is now on the staff of the Charlotte Hornets—as close to home as he can be in the pros.

From Tar Heel to Gold Medal

He gave an interview to his hometown paper, The Daily Advance, where you can read more. It’s a remarkable journey from growing up in Northeastern North Carolina to sitting on the bench behind Steve Kerr in Paris as USA Basketball plays for a gold medal later today.

So if you needed a Tar Heel to root for today, just look to how happy Dr. Sawyer will be if the team manages to bring home the gold.