By Mark Bergin, WRAL senior multiplatform producer

Chapel Hill, N.C. — Former North Carolina guard Marcus Paige is joining the Tar Heels’ men’s basketball coaching staff.

Paige, 29, will serve as the team’s director of team and player development.

“I am thankful and honored to be a part of UNC Basketball with Coach Davis and his staff,” Paige said in a university-issued news release. “I’ve always wanted the opportunity to make the same positive impact on players that my former coaches, including coach [Roy] Williams and coach [Hubert] Davis, made on me. ]

“Basketball has taken me around the world, and Taylor and I couldn’t be happier than to take this next step here with my Carolina family.”

Paige returns to Chapel Hill after a seven-year career playing professional basketball:

• 2022-23: Monbus Obradoiro of the Liga ACB.
• 2021-22: Orléans Loiret of the French Pro B League
• 2018-21: Partizan Belgrade of the ABA League and the EuroLeague
• 2017-18: Greensboro Swarm of the NBA G League
• 2017-18: Charlotte Hornets of the NBA
• 2016-17: Salt Lake City Stars of the NBA G League

The Brooklyn Nets selected Paige with the 55th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. The team traded him to the Utah Jazz the day after the draft.

“The standard for every Carolina basketball player is to be elite in three areas: on the court, in the classroom and in the community,” said North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis. “There was no better example of that than Marcus Paige.

“I am thrilled to have a person with his character, love, passion, and devotion to this program and University be around our players every day.”

Paige played for the Tar Heels from 2012-2016, finishing his career 11th in school history in scoring with 1,844 points, first in three-pointers (299), third in steals (203), fourth in free-throw percentage (.844) and eighth in assists (602).

Paige played for the Tar Heels team that lost to Villanova in the 2016 national title game, when Wildcats forward Kris Jenkins hit a three-pointer at the buzzer. Paige’s three-pointer with 4.7 seconds tied the game before Jenkins’ shot.