Reports came out in March that McCants had stopped by Chapel Hill in an effort to talk with his former coach Roy Williams. More details emerged last week after a McCants recent interview with Quierra Luck of “All Tar Heels” was published Thursday.

In 2014, McCants accused UNC — the basketball program and Williams in particular — of academic improprieties in an ESPN “Outside the Lines” interview, which led to a lengthy NCAA investigation and negative recruiting that impacted the Tar Heels as recently as last year’s 14-19 season, though the NCAA did not end up punishing the Tar Heels or ultimately charging them with any violations.

McCants said he’s been hurt by his black sheep status among fans and by the absence of a relationship with his former teammates from the 2005 NCAA title team. McCants played three years for UNC, setting the freshman scoring record in 2002-03 and being named an All-American as a sophomore at 20.0 ppg.

 "Do the fans need to know what they did to me? No. Do the fans know what I did to the program? Yeah, everybody knows — the world knows,” McCants told Luck.

"I always have much, much love, to the point where fans wouldn’t understand. They put me on a pedestal for a long time … and I can’t thank them enough or appreciate them enough. That’s what made me ask for the forgiveness.”