Ford played four years of basketball at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After his sophomore season, Ford started for the U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in 1976. He finished his career as the only player in Atlantic Coast Conference history to score over 2,000 points and register at least 600 assists. A consensus All-American in 1976, 1977, and 1978, he was named college player of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association in 1978, when he also won the Eastman and John R. Wooden Awards.

Ford was the NBA Rookie of the Year with the Kansas City Kings in 1979. In 482 NBA games, Ford scored 5,594 points, an 11.6 average, and had 3,083 assists, an average of 6.4 per game. In 1988 he returned to North Carolina as an assistant coach, a job he held through the 1999-2000 season.

Ford was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in May 1991, and had stints as an assistant coach in the NBA with the New York Knicks and Charlotte Bobcats.