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As a Tar Heel fan since the 80s, there is so much I could say, and I just might do that.
First, I am sorry for how his wife and children etc must feel. Second, and I will expand on this, I am sorry for how his former players & assistant coaches etc feel. If I could, I would love nothing more right now than to bump into a former player or assistant coach of his and tell them how sorry I am for their loss. I can just imagine how Phil Ford, Bobby Jones, Larry Brown, George Karl, Bill Gutheridge, Charles Scott, Kenny "The Jet" Smith, Rasheed Wallace, George Lynch, Ademola Okulaja, and a huge host of other former players must feel today. I have no doubt there is great sadness, perhaps mixed in with great relief (in terms of how Coach Smith now is in a better place vs being in bad health), among all of these persons. I can just imagine many of these players talking to each other on the phone about this.
What really stands out to me about Dean Smith are the stories I read about how great his memory was, and how he kept in touch with such people. This really stands out to me because over the past few years I've observed how people don't seem to be so hospitable or take the time for others anymore. I've had 2 really good friends from college no longer bother returning any of my phone calls, even when I, say, call on the order of every 4-odd months and just leave a message saying I'd love to hear back from them. I'm talking about people whom I saw practically everyday, took spring break vacations with, met their parents, stayed in their homes on occasion, exchanged Christmas gifts, they surprised me on my birthday yearly (and me them)--and now, all of a sudden, they can't return a phone call over the course of 3-4 months? You expect that with more "casual" friends from your college days, but you figure that your top 2 or so will always be there for you, even if much less often.
Dean Smith, he obviously was an extremely busy man, yet he would even remember the names of friends or relatives of his former players. Antawn Jamison, one of my favorite Tar Heels ever (that could be an article all its own, how he gets overlooked sometimes in terms of discussions regarding all-time Tar Heel greats and I think he belongs in Phil Ford/Tyler Hansbrough territory) spoke of how he would call his parents and his brothers and check on how they were doing--even after he was finished coaching. He recruited Tom McMillen in the 70s but when McMillen chose Maryland instead he STILL mailed him a Christmas Card every year.
And people can't take the time to return their friends'c calls because they're "busy?" Please. There is no way those people are even 15% as busy as Dean Smith was, yet he did it--for people RELATED to his former players.
I have said that, if I could meet a former Tar Heel such as Phil Ford, Brad Daughterty or Vince Carter, I'd tell them how much I envy them, but not so much for their basketball accomplishments and wealth, but because they had a relationship with Dean Smith and could call on him and his counsel almost anytime. That's what is stunning to me--even players who barely played could, years later, call and speak to him and get the same quick response as if Michael Jordan had called him. Regardless, how fortunate are these men to not only have known him during their playing days, but to be able to have called on him for advice and guidance anytime they felt the need? Not only that, to receive calls from him periodically, with him doing the "cultivating" of the relationship as busy as he was, he really set the standard for relationship cultivation.
That is something that not only can coaches learn in terms of how to have relationships with their players vs just using them for what you can get out of them, but also to all of us in terms of taking the time to cultivate relationships with the close ones in your life vs being all high & mighty about being too "busy" and how someone wanting a relationship with us is "needy" or the like. Dean Smith made all of that type of thinking seem so pathetic, and yet, he wasn't splitting the atom and he wasn't looking for pats on the back, he just plain did it.
Those of us in Chapel Hill during his Reign have many stories about the generosity of this man. His accomplishments in basketball are many but I'm touched by his accomplishments and gifts to our community.
He took a black friend to integrate our finest restaurant at the time, The Pines. He was instrumental in getting a black friend into home ownership in an all white neighborhood. He helped get our first black mayor, Howard Lee, elected. He helped get our first black scholarship player. He confronted our Governor at the time, Jim Hunt, publically about the death penalty calling him and everybody else who lived in a death sentence state murderers. He loved basketball but his love of his players is legendary. He genuinely was interested in building character and integrity in young men.
Many Democrats in N.C. tried to get him to run for Congress against the infamous and N.C. embarrassment Jesse Helms. But he was not interested in that kind of politics. He would have won that election and any other he wanted to.
Late in his life he continued to go to his office with his caretaker. He would greet everybody even though he could not remember who they were. But he was unable to be in crowds which is pretty common for Alzheimer's patients. it makes them nervous and disoriented.
I hope our state flags are lowered in his memory and I know his funeral will be televised all over the state. Dean Smith was a truly great man so deserving of all the awards he was given and them some.
Last edited by DOUBLE H; 02-09-2015 at 05:44 PM..
Reason: spelling correction
Nice to see a coach that actually cared about developing his young men, educating them, teaching them instead of squeezing them like an orange and then discarding them to fend for themselves without any of the above.
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