UNC announced the hire of Jim Tanner, the founder and president of sports agency Tandem Sports + Entertainment, as the men's basketball team's new executive director and general manager on Tuesday afternoon.
The hire comes three weeks after head coach Hubert Davis declared on the Carolina Insider podcast in early February his intentions to hire a general manager.
"The old model for Carolina basketball [in terms of staff size] is not sustainable," Davis said on the podcast. "It has to build out because there are so many things in play with NIL, agents, international players. You need a bigger staff to maintain things, and so I can coach basketball."
In Tanner's new role with the team, he will assist with the construction of rosters, negotiate contracts, hire scouting and analytics staff and create player development programs.
After graduating from UNC in 1990, Tanner represented over 70 NBA players in his 28 years as a sports agent, including 40 first-round NBA Draft picks, 12 top-five selections and six inductees into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Tanner also worked with 17 former UNC athletes, including Naismith Hall of Fame inductee Vince Carter, 2017 Final Four Most Outstanding Player Joel Berry II and current director of operations Sean May.
"The landscape of college basketball has changed dramatically in a short period of time with NIL, collectives and the transfer portal," Tanner said in a statement. "It's a highly-competitive and constantly-evolving environment. I look forward to using my 28 years of experience recruiting and representing players to help position UNC as strategic, adaptive and innovative in scouting and attracting top domestic and international talent while staying true to the principles and values that have defined Carolina basketball over the years."
