Tyler Hansbrough’s most memorable class as a Carolina student was debate. One of the first topics he remembers discussing? Paying college athletes.
Nearly 20 years later, the Tar Heel basketball legend is the person facilitating those types of classroom conversations.
Hansbrough ’09 is a visiting professor in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media this semester. He’s co-teaching MEJO 377: Sports Communication with Livis Freeman, an associate professor and director of Hussman’s sports communication focus program.
Hansbrough is one of the most decorated players in Carolina basketball history, but he’s also a shy person, so teaching wasn’t a career he ever envisioned. In the past several years, though, he has been a guest speaker in Freeman’s classes, started his own podcast and served as a color analyst for the Tar Heel Sports Network. Now the four-time All-American and 2009 national champion is excited for this new challenge — and how he can help students.
He once told a class about how, during the pandemic, he was asked to work a TV broadcast of a men’s basketball game with just a day’s notice — something he’d never done. He jumped right in, relying on his experiences playing at Carolina and for nearly 11 years in the NBA and in China to comment on that game’s action. (The Tar Heels beat Northeastern.)
The challenge of starting anew resonated with students also facing new beginnings: switching majors, starting internships or even moving from a different country. That gave Hansbrough confidence he was making an impact.
“This is very much out of my comfort zone, but I’ve really enjoyed working with the students and trying to answer questions and give them help from an athlete perspective,” said the 2023 College Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. “I think that’s the benefit I can provide as far as stories and experiences that I’ve had dealing with the media and also the differences between college and professional media, and also international.”
Traditionally, Freeman has taught the class through the lens of strategic communications in sports, but with Hansbrough onboard, he broadened the syllabus to also cover broadcast, media production, the NIL era and more.One day early in the semester, the 6-foot-9 Hansbrough stood at the front of a Carroll Hall classroom leading a Q&A with Steve Kirschner, the senior associate athletic director for sports information and media relations.
Kirschner, who’s served as the primary media contact for Tar Heel men’s basketball for the past 30 years, discussed working with Hansbrough as he won ACC and national player of the year awards in 2008 and talking with him on the court after winning the 2009 national championship.It’s those experiences that make the former player an asset to have in class, Freeman says.
“When I wrote up the model for this, I talked about how I try to bring a certain level of passion and energy with the guest speakers,” he said. “I thought, ‘How cool would it be to have someone who’s lived and breathed all of this stuff, and at the highest level?’ … I told students, ‘You’ve got to put this in your portfolios and emphasize it when you try to get a job.’
Hansbrough, who also spoke at New Student Convocation, has fielded several jokes from former teammates surprised to see him back in the classroom. But he’s enjoying walking through campus and interacting with students.
“This isn’t just a four-year university and a place where you get your diploma,” said Hansbrough, who graduated with a degree in communications. “That’s very important, but the connections you build here and the people you meet — there’ll be lifetime connections. You never know what can formulate.”
