Sept. 5, 2009
By Adam Lucas
There was a time when we thought we knew better than Dean Smith.
That's just a quick reminder. If you ever sat in a seat in Carmichael Auditorium or the Smith Center in the first decade of its existence, or even in front of your television with your buddies, you probably thought you could do it better. Call a timeout sooner. Play a high-flying freshman earlier. Get out and defend those three-point shooters. You can deny it now, but all of us know it's true.
"Call a timeout, Dean!"
"Play Carter!"
"Stop giving up those open three-pointers!"
That's what we would have done. On the outside, it always seems easy.
On the inside, though, the players and coaches in the program consistently knew, every day they came to practice, that Dean Smith was doing it exactly right. What's more impressive is that they know it even more now, when they're a few years removed from the program.
That's why they came from points across the country and beyond to attend Friday night's alumni game. They know what the man did. They know he did it the best--and he did it exactly right. And this isn't one of those silly sports arguments where I say, "Dean Smith was the best," and you say, "Well, what about this guy?" Dean Smith was the best. No one, anywhere in college basketball, has ever built what he built, and if you're measuring it only in wins you're doing it the wrong way.
The Smith Center's back hallway was a hub of activity in the two hours before Friday's game (by the way, the White team won 113-92 in the most insignificant score in Tar Heel history). As players arrived, they visited the basketball office, then went down to the locker room, then spent a couple minutes doing a couple projects for the 100 years of Carolina Basketball celebration. One of those required each player to read a list of the program's accomplishments into a camera.
You know the type: 18 Final Fours. Six national championships. Thirty NBA championship rings. 17 ACC tournament championships. Eleven ACC players of the year. 39 NBA first-round draft picks.
We know all these numbers because it's part of our education as a Carolina fan. But seeing them all together on one page, it's remarkable--even to those who lived it.
Buzz Peterson was about halfway down the list when he paused. "Wow," he said. "This is a pretty impressive list."
It's even more impressive when you consider that Smith found time to win all those games while never once believing that winning the games was the most important part of his job.
Players came back this weekend to relive their college days, just like every former college student. With a free day in Chapel Hill, what did Ademola Okulaja, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and Makhtar Ndiaye do? Went to the Carolina Basketball Museum and walked down Franklin Street.
"I was walking beside Ademola and it hit me," Carter said. "I looked at him and said, `It's been 10 or 11 years since I've walked down Franklin Street like this. It's like old times.'"
All of us want to walk in those same footsteps we left on our college campus. We go to the same restaurants, swing by the old dorm, maybe even check in on a classroom. Carter and Okulaja were walking beside Koury Natatorium and looked at each other.
"Remember that?" Carter said.
Both started laughing. Memories.
So they were here to do some reminiscing, of course. But mostly, they were here for the man who coached them--no, taught them--while they were in Chapel Hill.
"This is the summertime and there are 21,000 people here and it's because of a man who has meant so much to so many people," said Detroit Pistons head coach John Kuester. "They respect everything he is about. That's why players come back and coaches come back. They have so much love and care for him so much."
You can see that love in the way they defer to him--Jackie Manuel went so far as to say he "tenses up" when he's around Dean Smith because he's nervous he might do the wrong thing--but on Friday, you could also see it on the court.
The alumni game also included a recognition of Michael Jordan's impending induction into the Hall of Fame. But even Jordan himself would acknowledge that Smith's introduction was the highlight, because without Smith, there would have been a very different Jordan.
Fittingly, Smith was the last person introduced during pregame introductions. He did what he always does--he waved his hands for the crowd to be quiet. But they wouldn't, and that was because his players lined up across the court were waving their arms over their heads, encouraging the sellout crowd to get louder. George Karl was waving and Carter was waving and even Sean May, who never played a minute for Smith, was waving.
That's the definitive proof that he did it exactly the right way. They came back, all of them, over a decade after he retired, to let him know they still remembered. They still knew what he taught them
"There is no place like this," Larry Brown said. "The relationships we have with one another, the loyalty we have to players and coaches that have been here is unsurpassed. I've been able to participate in a lot of NBA All-Star games. Because of the relationships we've been able to have, there's always a sense of pride among the Carolina guys there. And there's a sense of envy among everyone else."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of five books on Carolina basketball, including the upcoming book on the 2009 national title, One Fantastic Ride. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
