INDIANAPOLIS — Eric Montross, a former Indiana state high school basketball champion with Lawrence North and NCAA champion at North Carolina, has been diagnosed with cancer, according to his family.
In a tweet posted Saturday on the Carolina Basketball account, the family said Montross, 51, is beginning treatments at UNC Lineberger Cancer Center in North Carolina.
“Our family is of course deeply concerned, but we have spent nearly three decades in the fight against children’s cancer and know well the incredible advancements that are being made in oncology treatments, as well as the power of love, prayer, support and positivity,” the family said in a statement. “We are all touched by the responses our entire family has received since the news became public.
“Your support is more than appreciated; it is welcomed as a necessary part of beating cancer one day at a time. Our family is dealing with Eric’s diagnosis head-on — the only way we know how. And we are all in this fight together.”
The statement was attributed to Eric, Laura, Andrew and Sarah Montross.
Montross serves as a radio analyst for North Carolina games while also working in the school's athletic fundraising office.
He retired after eight years in the NBA after he was picked ninth overall by Boston in the 1994 NBA Draft.