Ken Howard was nicknamed "The White Shadow" while he played for Manhasset High School 's basketball team. He was the only white starter on his team. Howard based his performance on his high school basketball coach, Fritz Mueller. Carver's team colors, orange and blue, were based on the the colors of Howard's school, .
According to Kevin Hooks, the decision to cancel the show was made abruptly after 15 episodes of Season 3. At least three episodes remain unaired, one in which he was to make his directorial debut, and two others which were to be centered around the characters of Jesse Mitchell (Stoney Jackson) and Eddie Franklin (Art Holliday).
Basketball became a popular sport in Turkey due to the popularity of reruns of this series airing there.
In the pilot episode, mens high-school basketball head-coach, Ken Reeves drove a snazzy red Mustang convertible sports car. In subsequent episodes, he is seen driving only an old station wagon, probably in an attempt to show Reeves as more down-to-earth instead of a glamorous and retired National Basketball Association athlete.
Byron Stewart was hired for the part of Warren Coolidge after Ken Howard saw him on TV in the movie Schmok (1977). Howard immediately phoned Bruce Paltrow to hire Stewart, who is 6'8" tall, because Howard wanted at least one "player" taller than himself on the Carver team (Howard is 6'6").