It has been quite a while since October 9, 1997. I’ll never forget being told that Dean Smith was retiring and immediately telling the messenger he wasn’t funny and to quit lying about something like that. He finally convinced me that it might not be a joke, so I investigated a bit and quickly found it definitely was no joke. Surprisingly, I couldn’t fight back the tears. I felt like there had been a death in my immediate family. And then I concluded I must really be crazy to have such strong emotions over a person whom I had never met and who was still alive.
Dean Smith came to Carolina 6 months before I was born. HE was the reason I became such a fan of Carolina basketball and by association, a fan of the university itself. Words cannot express how much I respect and love that man. But after over 13 years, I thought I could finally watch his retirement press conference without crying. That turned out to be inaccurate, but as I watched, I was reminded of many of the reasons I respect Coach Smith as much as I do.
Here, if you haven’t seen it in a while, it’s definitely worth a few minutes of your time:
