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Top Tar Heel Carolina's Dean Smith is on our mind
Posted: Sunday November 21, 1999 10:54 PM
Talk about being No. 1. He's finished in the top ten polls more often -- 24. He has more 20-win seasons -- 29. He's made more trips to the NCAA -- 27. And he's won more ACC regular-season titles -- 17. "He" is Dean Smith, the former head basketball coach at North Carolina. Now check out this stat: the number of times Smith has sat down for a Page One interview with CNN/SI's Nick Charles -- 1. Nick Charles : You are a coach who will be remembered of course for your wins and your accomplishments on the court. But also as a man, you will be remembered as a guy who had social impact. You perhaps, helped force integration in North Carolina at the school in terms of Charlie Scott. Dean Smith : I think I got too much ""credit" from that. Actually, when I first became head coach our pastor of our church -- we had some black students in our church in '59 when I got there -- and he said, "Forget that church work, you're student affairs chairman, go get a black player." That's the first thing. And I should have gone out then at every high school and I didn't. See I didn't. I waited for names to come to me. And I feel bad about that. Perry Wallace went to Vanderbilt, Charles Scott came to Carolina the same year. That was the big year across the Deep South. And then they helped bring other African-American athletes in football and basketball the following year. Charles : Kids who leave early, I think in my opinion, sometimes they're unjustly criticized in the sense of, what's in it for them to stay? Smith : I totally agree with you. I think (you leave) only if you can be financially secure for life. Because, "You do want a degree, (when talking to players) don't you? But yet you want to be an NBA player." Now, if you can do both and be in the top five, that's when I say, "It's a good move." Because Tiger Woods left Stanford. Should he have stayed at Stanford? I don't think so. See [Michael] Jordan left. We had nine leave and of those six have their degrees now. Michael has it, [James] Worthy has his degree. They all come back in the summers and get their degrees. [Jerry] Stackhouse [Detroit Pistons] left as a sophomore. That's hard to come back. He finished two summer sessions this year [and] has his degree. He's flying down December 18 just to walk through the [graduation] line. And then he'll go back and play Philadelphia that night. Charles : Speaking of choices and people leaving, you never left your school once you got there. Did you ever contemplate the NBA? Smith : No, I've been fortunate [and] I get a lot of calls. Charles : Why not? Smith : I'm a college guy. I love college, the faculty, the student body, young people to teach. In fact, Larry Brown was my assistant, now with the 76ers. I hope he gets back to college. Charles : Who called you? Smith : Atlanta. (Owner Thomas G.) Cousins did back in 1970. Charles : To coach the Hawks. Smith : Yes, and then Sonny Werblin was probably as close as I came with the Knicks in the late '70's. I know [Ron] Guidry was pitching the first game of the World Series. I was talking to him [Werblin] in Steinbrenner's box. And then [the Lakers'] Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak, my former player, was always nice and he'd say, "OK, it [head coaching job] is open again. Do you want it?" And of course, no. Charles : How did coaching the Olympics in 1976 differ? How was your approach? Was it totally different? You talked about it in your book. Smith : We really said, "Gang, we're here to win the gold medal. We have six weeks of practice. We're going to work very hard and we're just going to win. I don't care about anything else. If I say be there at six, you are there at six. Not a lot of rules. And then in our program at college we talked about three things: Play hard as you can. Play smart -- that means you execute. And play very unselfishly -- winning is a by-product, we don't talk about it. There's a big difference (between college and pros). I'll bench a guy for maybe some little thing, just to teach him something in college. But in the Olympics, if it's going to cost the game, no way. Charles : You mentioned Michael Jordan. In terms of him, a lot of people say he personified the Dean Smith "unselfish" philosophy. There was a joke, "If anybody could stop Michael Jordan, it was coach Smith." Smith : (smiling) I did. Charles : In terms of points per game. Smith : I know. It's so disappointing that pro scouts think points-per-game is important. I don't know who does. I don't think Michael gets enough credit for the defensive player all those years. I mean he does so much. He had a high field-goal percentage for North Carolina. He was National Player of the Year his junior year, second in the voting his sophomore year. So I didn't hide him too much. Charles : I have to ask you finally, your most memorable moment? Smith : I always joke about my memorable moment is when I finish camp each summer and we haven't had anybody drown or anybody run over. I've been so lucky to have so many memorable moments. Probably just the relationship with all those players over the years. Charles : Dean Smith, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Smith : Thank you, Nick.
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