Former UNC basketball captain, NBA star, and G League coach Joe Wolf dead at 59: ‘He will be missed’

Joe Wolf, who rose to stardom as a North Carolina basketball captain under legendary coach Dean Smith, died earlier this week. “Throughout his life, Joe touched many lives and was a highly respected, adored and dedicated coach and player across the NBA,” the Bucks said in a statement on Thursday. After he left North Carolina, Wolf went on to play for several NBA teams over the span of 11 years. He then moved into coaching, working as an assistant for the Bucks’ G League affiliate — the Wisconsin Herd. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM “Off the court, Joe was a beloved brother, uncle, friend and community leader,” the statement from the Bucks continued. Wolf was a co-captain for the Tar Heels as a senior in 1986-87, sharing that role with Kenny Smith. North Carolina went 115-22 in Wolf’s four seasons, making the Sweet 16 twice and the Elite Eight twice in that span. US STAR GRECO-ROMAN WRESTLER ALAN VERA, 33, DEAD AFTER HEALTH COMPLICATIONS FROM CARDIAC ARREST “I like to think I started getting trained the minute I stepped on campus,” Wolf told the Greensboro News and Record in 2018. He was an All-ACC pick in 1987 and finished his career at North Carolina with 1,231 points. He spent three seasons with the organization before joining the Denver Nuggets in 1991, and later playing for five more franchises. Wolf led Kohler High School to three Wisconsin state championships, and in 2005 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel named him the state’s greatest high school basketball player ever, the Bucks said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP He coached at the college level as an assistant at William & Mary and UNC Wilmington, was a head coach in what is now called the G League with Idaho, Colorado and Greensboro, had been an NBA assistant for Milwaukee and Brooklyn and was hired in 2023 as a G League assistant for the Herd. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.foxnews.com/sports/former-unc-basketball-captain-nba-star-g-league-coach-joe-wolf-dead-59-he-missed