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Great Facebook post here from Bob Valvano about Jimmy V and Dean Smith”

I have quoted it most of my professional life…
“You can’t make winning and losing like life and death. For starters, you’ll be dead a lot.” — Dean Smith.
Perspective. I thought it was simple, clear perspective.
Dean Smith died today at 83, and it generated a lot of emotion, not the least of which was a little dark humor irony.
When my brother Jim got the job at NC State, everyone asked about how would he be able to compete with the legendary Dean Smith?
He said, quite sincerely, “Look it will be hard. He’s one of the greatest ever. But we will work hard, and we’ll win some of our own.”
Then he added tongue in cheek, “Besides, I’m much younger. I’ll outlive him.”
Nope. Dean wouldn’t even let him win that…
Obviously when Jim went to State I became a huge State fan, but I must confess I grew up a Carolina fan. I can tell you exactly when it started… I was in junior high, and the Tarheels came to Madison Square Garden to play in a doubleheader there.
I loved everything about them! The fast pace of play, pointing at the teammate who gave you a good pass, taking yourself out of the game if you were tired but having the right to put yourself back in when you were rested…
Who did stuff like this? No one.
The bench players standing and congratulating a guy coming out of the game, hell, even the pretty cheerleaders… Everything just fit perfectly. The whole package. And it was all about team first.
As a guy who grew up in a family of coaches I loved that it was team first. That’s what it was SUPPOSED to be.
Sure, some of it may have looked calculated, but so what? The intent was to put the team first and to make everything fit consistently together. One message.
Here is an example. I heard Coach Smith at a clinic once. He said to all of us, “Where do you try to force the opponent to take the ball when you’re on defense?” Like many, I said, to the corner. He said, “All right, now do you have any offensive plays where you throw the ball to the corner?” I confessed we did. He then said, “That’s a problem for your team then. Any smart player is going to wonder, ‘If it’s so bad to have the ball in the corner, that we work defensively to force the ball there, why are we willingly throwing the ball there when WE have it ourselves?’. Your system has to send a consistent message to your players.”
I never forgot that, and actually spent that summer changing our system, making our offensive and defensive principles more complimentary and consistent relative to the other.
He could influence you that way, as he was a great teacher of the game. I once heard him lecture on the Carolina Scramble defense, and right now, about 22 years later, I could probably off the top of my head give you the principles of how to run it and implement it. That’s impressive teaching.
But it was more than that. I grew up in an era where coaches, despite their competitiveness, had a sense of fraternity. They weren’t making huge sums of money. They fought tooth and nail, but the guys I admired felt part of a special bond.
In the ACC that was very tough. I don’t think Dean was especially close with the other coaches. But at that time NCState was probably a bigger rival to Carolina than even Duke was, and yet Dean and my brother Jim always got along well.
Here is one of my favorite stories. One summer day, Jim is home with his wife, and the doorbell rings. He opens it and who is there, but Dean Smith and his wife Linnea. A bit startled, Jim is happy to welcome them in, and they spend a great afternoon visiting and laughing.
Dean happened to be in an area near Jim’s house and said to his wife, “Let’s see what Jim and Pam are doing,” and they just dropped in!
I am sure the people who want every rivalry to be ugly and nasty, are shocked at that, but it’s the truth and I loved it… And I know Jimmy did too. He mentioned it often.
When I was coaching in Sweden, I brought my team for a US tour and we stopped at NC State. This was right after they built the Dean Dome, and Jim said, “Let me call Dean. You have to take your team over to see that building… Your players will love it… ”
That was old school to me. The community of basketball. I loved it… And lament it’s decline now.
Don’t get me wrong. Dean Smith was a fierce competitor (as was Jim for that matter.) I remember Dean telling a story that they had to come up with all these rules between his friends to govern their golf game because the gamesmanship was getting out of hand.
But that’s what’s tough. Any jablonski can have a win at all costs attitude. That’s nothing special. How do you do it with a sense of something greater than yourself, respect for the game, respect for opponent, respect for self? THAT’S what’s special.
I think Dean Smith did that.
It took my brother a few tries to finally win one against Dean, and Jim told me that when he finally did, as they shook hands at mid court, Dean said, “Congratulations…I’m happy for you.”
Classy thing to say.
He had the fortitude to stand up for racial equality way ahead of some others, and did so often courageously in the face of strong criticism. He believed it was right though, and stood up for what he believed.
My friend Seth Greenburg made a great point.
He said, Dean’s players loved and respected him, and even after leaving Carolina, rarely made important decisions in their lives without first consulting him.
I called him on the phone to ask something about an article I was trying to write, and after he answered my questions, we chatted a bit, and I was amazed he seemed to know where every ex player was. Ones that I knew as well, who might have been struggling or out of coaching at the moment, he often referred to as hoping to get them here or there, on this job or that. Not posturing either. That was obvious…he took that part of his life very seriously.
For all the accolades, championships, awards, and honors, is there a greater legacy than knowing you made the lives of the people you touched better?
To borrow one of Jim’s favorite expressions…
Without question… Dean Smith did that.
It was an honor to have met him.

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