Enjoy the Journey: Pete Nance

On the doorstep of his professional basketball career, Pete Nance isn’t worried. After all, he has a whole family of hoopers in his corner.

Pete’s basketball story all started with his two older siblings. Casey, who played college basketball at Dayton, and Larry Jr, an eight year NBA veteran, were the youngest Nance's inspirations growing up. Their intense living room games of 21 is where he found a love for the game, despite his mom's ire when they knocked ornaments off the Christmas tree during the holidays.

But always there to defend them was their father, Larry Nance Sr, a 2X NBA All-Star and one of the finest dunkers in basketball history. And except for breaking out his old highlights from time to time, Larry Sr. let his kids find their own way to the sport.

“He really let us find it for ourselves, and that’s one thing I’m really thankful for from him," said Pete Nance of his father. "I bet it’s really easy to force your kid into playing basketball when you love it so much, but I feel like I'd be playing basketball no matter what my last name would be.”

He might have let his kids discover their love for basketball on their own, but Larry Sr. certainly didn't hesitate to immerse them in the best the sport had to offer. Pete grew up watching LeBron James dominate the hardwood in Cleveland, where his father had played a decade earlier. From James’ buzzer-beating heroics over the outstretched arms of Hedo Türkoğlu in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals to his herculean efforts in the Cavs 2018 playoff run, Pete was in attendance for more magical moments than you can count.

As he absorbed years of high-level hoops at Quicken Loans Arena, Pete blossomed into a talented basketball player in his own right. Inheriting the height and frame of his father, the now 6'11" Nance led Revere High School to its first ever district championship while also being named Ohio Division II Player of the Year. As a four-star prospect and the 64th best player in the country according to 247Sports, he had offers from top college basketball programs in the area like Ohio State and Michigan.

But it was a private school about 30 minutes north of Chicago that eventually caught his eye. Northwestern hadn’t historically been a basketball powerhouse, but in 2017 they were coming off their first NCAA tournament appearance in school history. That recent success, coupled with shiny new facilities and great academics, made Evanston an intriguing option for Nance. But it was a coach with a very similar story that had him hooked.

Chris Collins knew a thing or two about living up to a father's lofty legacy. His father, Doug Collins, was a 4X NBA All-Star with the Philadelphia 76ers and a successful coach for four different franchises. He forged a close connection with Pete regarding the challenge of getting out of your family's shadow.

”We used to talk about being able to run my own race and not compare myself to anybody," said Nance. "My dad and brother were, and are, amazing people who have had amazing careers. But just helping me find comfort in the fact that I'm on my own journey that has nothing to do with them is something he helped me out a lot with.”

(That's not to say Nance hasn't taken parts of his game from his dad and brother. All three are willing passers, good teammates, and overall high IQ players.)

On a team level, Northwestern was never able to cobble together a season as successful as 2017. But individually, Nance thrived. He became the Wildcats’ focal point during his junior and senior year as a dominant interior presence, feisty rebounder, and elite shooter for his height; he averaged nearly 14 points and seven rebounds per game while shooting over 40% from deep.

So it was no surprise that Nance attracted some NBA interest in the summer of 2022. He got his first taste of professional basketball when he was invited to the G League Elite camp.

“It's an interesting perspective for us in this position, because it's kind of the first time in our lives where we're not on a team," said Nance. "We're always so focused on developing towards becoming a better team and winning games, but then it was all about us and just becoming the best that we can be individually.”

While the camp went well, Nance couldn't help but feel that there was something more for him in college basketball. That’s why that summer, he transferred to one of the most prestigious programs in the country: the University of North Carolina.

When Pete Nance made the decision to transfer from Northwestern to North Carolina, he wasn’t just enrolling in one of college basketball’s finest institutions. He was joining a long lineage of hoops legends. Tar Heel alumni use the phrase “Carolina Family” to describe the strong bond between players who have passed through the program, and Nance found that to be true in every regard.

”The Carolina Family that you hear about growing up couldn’t have been more accurate,” said Nance. “When you have guys like Tyler Hansbrough and players of that caliber just in the gym every day who are totally on your side and want to do anything to help you that they possibly can, it’s an experience unlike any other.”

Add in a coaching staff filled with former college stars and NBA veterans, it was the perfect environment for Nance to take the next step in his development.

After their national championship game appearance in 2022, UNC brought back four starters for the 2022-23 season and Nance filled the hole left by starting forward Brady Manek. You couldn’t find a preseason poll that didn’t have the Tar Heels ranked as the #1 team in the country, and for some, it seemed like anything less than bringing a 7th banner home to Chapel Hill would be a failure.

Unfortunately for Nance, he was asked to play out of position for most of the year and therefore was unable to perform to his full potential. Despite some bright spots, including a career high 28 points vs Portland and a monster 22-point, 4-block performance in UNC’s biggest win of the season over #6 Virginia, the consistent jumper he had at Northwestern eluded him at times.

Even more unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned regarding UNC’s season. They started the season 5-4 and trudged to a 20-13 finish, missing out on March Madness entirely. Many fans' passion started to morph into hate as the disappointing year went on, and it was Nance who often took the brunt of this criticism.

If you look up Pete Nance on Twitter, you begin to understand just how much resentment UNC fans had for him: “Get this scrub off my television screen.” “Pete Nance should never step foot on campus again.” “Once a Tar Heel, always a Tar Heel, except for Pete Nance.”

”It just seems that people forget that we’re human,” said Nance. “At the end of the day there’s nobody that’s harder on us than ourselves. And don’t get me wrong there are a lot of amazing people that send super supportive messages through good times and bad, but it’s sad that they get drowned out by these nasty messages that end up at the top.”

Despite a tumultuous final college season, Nance came into the 2023 Draft process with a refreshed sense of clarity and a new mindset: do what you can do, and don’t worry about the outside noise.

That refreshed mindset showed in April at the Portsmouth Invitational, an annual amateur tournament for top college seniors. Nance’s numbers didn’t exactly pop off the page, but that was almost by design.

“These types of events can be rough, because when you have everyone trying to show that they’re really good, there’s gonna be some guys that will shoot it almost every time they get it,” said Nance. “But [what] if I just try to do the things that I can control. Like how can I help this team and show I can be effective without the ball?”

Nance focused on what he does best: making smart reads with the ball in his hands, impressing multiple times as a weak side blocker, and showing off a high basketball IQ that NBA teams crave when scouting for role players.

In many ways, his play was reminiscent of this iconic quote from Alex Caruso. “A big reason guys get stuck in the G-League is because they don’t realize the position they’re trying out for. It’s like going to a job interview thinking you’re going to be the CFO of the company, and they’re looking for someone to clean the bathrooms.”

Now, just a few weeks away from the beginning of his professional basketball journey, Nance is more relaxed thanks to some important advice from his dad and brother: have fun, do what you can, and live with the results.

”Last year, I was really nervous and putting a lot of pressure on myself to perform. Now, I'm giving my full effort every day but also recognizing that this is an amazing, amazing, opportunity that’s only something to be happy and excited about.”

No matter what happens on draft night, Pete Nance is comfortable blazing his own trail, and that’s just the way he likes it.