As I’m sure you heard on Sunday, legendary former North Carolina head coach Dean Smith died this weekend. His death led to an outpouring of stories, some of which are noted below. I wouldn’t read them all at once and there’s some repetition of tropes, but they paint slightly different perspectives of the same image (mostly through anecdotes, as Smith hated interviews).

1. ESPN: This story written by Tommy Tomlinson last year is as good as any about Smith’s struggles with dementia. Don’t miss out on Mike Puma’s 2007 feature or Dana O’Neil’s tribute, either.
2. Boston Globe: Bob Ryan does a tremendous job looking at Smith’s overall legacy (bookended with big games against Boston College).
3. Washington Post: John Feinstein (who’s currently working on a book about Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, and Jim Valvano) adds another perspective, looking at some of the people that Smith touched during his life.
4. Sports Illustrated: SI named Smith its Sportsman of the Year in 1997. It’s a great (uplifting) piece that’s a good way to break up the others. There’s also Frank Deford’s piece on the 1982 National Championship and Seth Davis’ obituary.
5. Raleigh News & Observer: This is maybe the paper with the most complete coverage of Smith’s passing, highlighted with Ron Green’s look back at Smith’s career (Green was a longtime ACC columnist). The News & Observer does a tremendous job as well, thanks to Luke DeCock’s piece on his legacy and Barry Jacobs’ eulogy.
6. Wall Street Journal: Ben Cohen starts with Smith’s contributions to the tempo-free community, using it as a microcosm for an ahead-of-his time career.
7. Tar Heel Blog: Smith didn’t just interact with the best basketball players in the world or reporters — he also gave his time to aspiring coaches and everyday students.
8. The Sporting News: Mike DeCourcy provides another valuable perspective on Smith’s legacy and his importance.
9. CBSSports.com: Gary Parrish throws his hat in the ring by looking at Smith’s contributions off the court.
10. Durham Herald-Sun: John McCann does a good job putting together many of the immediate reactions to Smith’s death.

mpatton (576 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2015 at 8:01 am by Matt Patton and is filed under acc, microsites, morning 5. Tagged: dean smith, feature, north carolina, unc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.