Phil Hubbard’s name is about to live on in Canton.
The former NBA player, longtime coach and St. Paul VI Catholic High School assistant will be honored next month when a basketball court in Canton, Ohio is renamed in his honor.
Hubbard, who starred at McKinley High School in Canton, will be recognized on Aug. 8 during a “mini park reunion” at the Preston Young Sr. Mini Park, according to the Canton Repository.
At Paul VI in Chantilly, Virginia, Hubbard has spent the last six years as part of Glenn Farello’s staff. He also brings a long coaching résumé from the NBA, with stops with the Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards. Hubbard, now 69, also served as head coach of the Los Angeles D-Fenders in 2014-15.
Farello said the honor is more than fitting.
"It is definitely awesome!," Glenn Farello told High School On SI in a text message. "Phil joined us in 2019!"
Hubbard’s basketball roots in Canton run deep. He was Ohio’s player of the year in 1975 at McKinley, and over his junior and senior seasons he helped the program go 48-3 while reaching the state tournament’s final four both years.
As a senior, Hubbard piled up 480 points in 18 regular season games, breaking the school record previously held by future NBA player Nick Weatherspoon. He finished that regular season by scoring 42 points in McKinley’s win over Timken High School for the city championship. He also earned a spot on the all-tournament team in the state playoffs, along with All-Ohio recognition and Class AAA Player of the Year honors from both the Associated Press and United Press International.
Hubbard kept rolling through the all-star circuit in 1975. He scored 19 points and collected 15 rebounds for the U.S.
All-Stars in the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic in Pittsburgh, earning MVP honors in a 107-96 win. He then put up 23 points and 19 rebounds for the Ohio All-Stars in a 103-94 win over the U.S.
All-Stars in the Coliseum Classic, where he was co-MVP. Hubbard also posted 24 points and 16 rebounds to lead the North team past the South 109-89 in the Ohio Cage Classic.
From Canton, Hubbard went to Michigan, choosing the Wolverines over Iowa, Iowa State, Ohio State, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Southern California. He made an immediate impact in Ann Arbor, helping Michigan reach the NCAA Championship Game against Indiana in 1976 as a freshman while averaging 15.1 points and 11.0 rebounds per game.
That same year, Hubbard was part of the United States men’s basketball team that won gold at the Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, and he scored 10 points in the gold medal game against Yugoslavia.
He went on to become an All-American in 1977, when he helped Michigan win the Big Ten championship and averaged 19.5 points and 13.0 rebounds per game. A serious knee injury in the World University Games wiped out his entire junior season, but Hubbard recovered and entered the 1979 NBA Draft, where the Detroit Pistons took him in the first round with the No. 15 pick. He later played for the Cleveland Cavaliers during a decade-long NBA career.
Hubbard’s legacy has already been recognized in several places. He was inducted into the University of Michigan Hall of Honor in 1992, had his No. 35 retired by Michigan in 2004 and entered the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.
For Paul VI, Hubbard has been part of a run that included a 33-3 finish in the 2025-26 campaign, a Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title and the program’s second national championship in three seasons. His role helped Glenn Farello earn national coach of the year honors and Jordan Smith Jr. become the consensus national player of the year.
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