After years of failing health, Dean Smith passed away Saturday night at the age of 83. The tributes flowed in all day Sunday: Michael Jordan remembered his “second father”; Roy Williams reflected on his mentor and former boss; and media members across the country (including SI‘s Seth Davis and Alexander Wolff) shared their memories of one of college basketball’s greatest head coaches. Smith’s 879 wins, 11 Final Fours and two National Titles all found frequent mention yesterday, but equally conspicuous was praise of Dean Smith, the human being. In 1969, it was Smith who ended segregation in the ACC when he offered a scholarship to Charlie Scott, an eventual two-time All-American for the Heels (and later, father of current Ohio State guard Shannon Scott). To reveal the injustices of the American prison system, Smith brought his players to witness death row first-hand and meet some of the prisoners. Perhaps most valuably, he is widely credited as being the first to cultivate a true sense of family within his basketball program. It’s why Jordan viewed him as more than just his coach. It’s also become the elusive ideal that every program in college basketball now aspires to create.
“The Carolina Way” may sound like a snippet of cheesy propaganda, but those three words would come to define Smith’s coaching methodology. More than anything, they represented the fact that if you were a Dean Smith guy, you would care about accomplishments and lessons that couldn’t be defined by a simple ‘W’ or ‘L’. Other programs and coaches have successfully constructed programs that stand for that family ideal – with Smith’s old Tobacco Road and ACC rival Mike Krzyzewski still existing as the clearest current example at Duke – but for every program that successfully accomplishes the feat, countless others will try and fail. In a contemporary college basketball era where coaches are under more pressure than ever to win, players are offered more opportunities than ever to defect (either by transfer or to the NBA), and increasingly little is private, creating and sustaining a college basketball program with a clear ethos is difficult. By being a human and father figure first and a coach second, Dean Smith built the template on how to create a program – not just a basketball team – that’s built to last.
Smith’s former players have thrived in the NBA. The Tar Heel stable of great NBA talent – players like Jordan, James Worthy, Vince Carter, among so many others – is without parallel. Their NBA success may not have occurred under Smith’s watch, but their professional triumphs should go down as one of his most significant accomplishments. In many ways, it’s the most succinct representation of Smith’s effectiveness as both basketball coach and father figure. His players were never taught basketball in a way that promoted their college effectiveness at the expense of future professional success. Similarly, the life lessons taught by Smith weren’t a means to help his players merely survive their four years in Chapel Hill; he built young adults who would be prepared to succeed in whatever professional endeavor came after life as a Tar Heel.
Smith stopped coaching basketball nearly 18 years ago. Younger college basketball fans may have never seen him coach a single game. Many who did may forget segments of his life and legacy. His passing has been a sad time for the college basketball community, but it’s also allowed a younger generation of fans a chance to appreciate a career that many may have never fully appreciated. If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll trust the greatest basketball player of all-time. In his Hall of Fame induction speech, Jordan uttered a truth that could surely apply to many a former Tar Heel:
“There’s no way you guys would have got a chance to see Michael Jordan play without Dean Smith.”