Dean Smith was a great coach and an even better man

When an 83-year-old man dies, it can be either sad or a blessing.

When former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith died, it was a bit of both. For the last few years, Smith had been in decline from what his family described as a memory-related condition. They didn't say Alzheimer's, but I have come to see from my own experiences that there certainly are other diseases every bit as heartbreaking.

For 36 years, from 1962-97, Smith was Atlantic Coast Conference basketball to much of the nation. His team went to 11 NCAA Final Fours and won two championships. Fully 96 percent of his players earned their degrees, with some of them -- including Michael Jordan -- coming back in the summers to complete their final credits.

Dean Smith

Smith earned the highest distinction of all when you realize that the NCAA changed the rules of the game because of something he developed.

For many years, weak teams had used the stall to give them a chance to compete with better ones. But Smith's Four Corners offense was used late in games to make it even more difficult for lesser teams to compete with his Tar Heels.

The NCAA responded by going to a 35-second shot clock to keep teams from holding onto the ball.

As good a coach as he was, Smith may have been an even better man.

When he recruited Charlie Scott in 1967, Scott was the first African-American to receive an athletic scholarship at UNC. Smith also integrated restaurants and a Chapel Hill neighborhood. He was a liberal in a conservative state and spoke out for a nuclear freeze in the 1980s.

He was also a man who knew his limitations. North Carolina Democrats tried to recruit him to run against Senator Jesse Helms, a race Smith might have won, but he knew he was a better coach than he would have been a senator and turned them down.

He was a coach who truly cared about the young men who played for him, and most of them stayed in touch with him long after leaving Chapel Hill.

His most famous player was Michael Jordan, who played for him for three years from 1981-84. Jordan issued a statement about Smith Sunday.

"Other than my parents, no one had a bigger influence on my life than Coach Smith. He was more than a coach -- he was my mentor, my teacher, my second father. Coach was always there for me whenever I needed him and I loved him for it. In teaching me the game of basketball, he taught me about life. My heart goes out to Linnea and their kids. We've lost a great man who had an incredible impact on his players, his staff and the entire UNC family."

During the 18 years I spent as a sportswriter, I covered some great games involving the Tar Heels. One game at Carmichael Coliseum in 1983 between No. 1-ranked Virginia and No. 2-ranked Carolina was truly amazing. With a little more than seven minutes left, the Cavaliers had a 62-47 lead. The Tar Heels won, 63-62, with Jordan scoring the last basket on a breakaway dunk.

A year later, at the NCAA East Regionals in Atlanta, the team Smith considered the best of his 36 Carolina squads suffered a 72-68 upset at the hands of Indiana. Ironically, ACC rival Virginia beat Indiana in the next round to advance to the Final Four.

But where Smith impressed me the most of all was two years later in Ogden, Utah. It was the NCAA West Regional. It was four years since the Tar Heels had won the championship and four years since they had been to the Final Four. The national media was making a big deal out of the fact that this was the first of Smith's senior classes that had not been to a Final Four.

Carolina beat Utah in the first round, and the next day the four winners had a press conference. I asked Smith's seniors if they had been affected by the talk. Before they could answer, Smith intervened.

"That's not a fair question," he said. "How many other teams here have been in the last four years?"

My question never got answered.

The next day, Carolina crushed Alabama-Birmingham, 77-59, and when the press conference was over, Dean Smith came looking for me.

"I owe you an apology," he said to me.

I shook my head. "Coach, you don't owe me anything."

"There was nothing at all wrong with your question yesterday," he said. "It's just that I'm trying to do whatever I can to keep the pressure off my players."

Dean E. Smith Center

I told him I understood and I thanked him.

There was only one more time my path crossed Coach Smith's. In February 1989 I was covering Nevada-Reno and we came all the way across the country for a game with UNC.

It wasn't a great game. The Heels easily outclassed the Wolf Pack, but the thrill of it was seeing a game in the newest college basketball palace.

The Dean E. Smith Center.

Rest in peace, Coach Smith. You've earned it.