Former North Carolina player and Assistant Basketball Coach, Phil Ford, has come out supporting Roy Cooper for Governor.

In the email, Ford laments the ACC pulling out championship games because of HB2. Ford says he’s “proud to support Roy Cooper, who said from the very beginning that this law was a bad idea.”

Yet Ford fails to mention Cooper did not oppose the illegal Charlotte ordinance which prompted HB2.  Cooper also has refused to do his job and defend the state from lawsuits stemming from HB2.

In the email blast, Ford also recalls that, “One of the highlights of my basketball career at North Carolina was the 1975 ACC Tournament in the Greensboro Coliseum. I’ll never forget cutting down those nets with my teammates after winning the championship.”

North Carolinians may recall some other history of Ford’s.

Like his 1999 DWI conviction:

North Carolina assistant Phil Ford pleaded guilty today to driving while impaired and was placed on probation for one year and ordered to pay $586 in fines and court costs.

Ford, 42, North Carolina‘s career scoring leader, was stopped by Durham police Sept. 27 and charged with driving while impaired. A test showed his blood alcohol level was 0.24 percent three times North Carolina‘s legal limit. He also had a previous out-of-state drunken driving conviction.

At today’s hearing, Durham County District Judge Claude Allen sentenced Ford to eight days in jail, but then suspended it because Ford has completed a 28-day alcohol-abuse recovery program. Prosecutors also dropped a charge of failing to stop at a red light as part of the plea agreement.

Ford also is barred from driving and must check in with a probation officer for one year. The judge also indicated Ford could face further punishment if found guilty of DWI or alcohol possession in a vehicle during the next five years.

That wasn’t Ford’s first DWI. He scored a 0.26 percent when he was stopped in September of 1997 while on a recruiting trip in Michigan.  Ford admitted at the time he had been an alcoholic for fourteen years.

Ford shortly after his conviction took a ‘medical leave‘ from his position at UNC.

The CBS report included a statement from Ford’s attorney, who said that, “He wanted to go ahead and take his punishment. From all accounts Phil is doing a remarkable job getting his life together.”

Once again, we see HB2 being used as a political tool by Roy Cooper.  Maybe Cooper needs to ‘go ahead and take his punishment’ for not doing his job.