University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Dean Smith Award Finds Fitting Recipient
November 10, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
When Dean Smith retired on Oct. 9, 1997, it was a massive media event. Cameras filled Bowles Hall on the lower level of the Smith Center. Fans who couldn't talk their way into the building stood with faces pressed against the windows of Bowles, many holding signs. ESPN went live.
The object of all this attention was Carolina coach Dean Smith. He spent approximately a half-hour at the podium looking uncomfortable and announcing his retirement. Then, after issuing the stunning statement that would lead national newscasts this evening, with virtually everyone who had ever known him trying to get in touch with him to issue well-wishes (President Bill Clinton called), he had one final very important task to perform:
He drove John Thompson to the airport.
The Georgetown coach had made the effort to fly into town for the announcement. Smith, minutes removed from one of the biggest announcements of his career, took the time to drive his friend back to the airport so they could enjoy a few quiet minutes together.
That's the kind of relationship shared by the duo. Thompson will be back in Chapel Hill tonight to accept the inaugural Dean Smith Award, created by the United States Basketball Writers Association to honor Smith's values and spirit. Tonight's dinner and auction will benefit the Dean Smith Opening Doors Fund, designed to help lower-income families send outstanding children to college.
“There was no one in basketball I loved or respected more than Dean Smith,” Thompson said in a statement when the award was announced. “There was never anyone like him.”
Their relationship began when Smith recruited Donald Washington out of St. Anthony's High in Washington D.C., where Thompson had been Washington's coach and legal guardian. It evolved from there, and Smith chose Thompson as an assistant coach when he coached the 1976 Olympic team.
That team was put together to bring the United States back from the 1972 debacle in Munich. Smith famously said it was the only team he ever coached where he felt his sole purpose as a coach was to win. He wanted two coaches beside him on the bench: Thompson and Bill Guthridge.
Smith and Thompson were kindred spirits in many ways; both Carolina and Georgetown sported near-perfect graduation rates under their direction. How close a friend was Thompson to Smith? The famously private Smith, who never opened his program to anyone, allowed Thompson to have the pregame meal with the team before the 1977 NCAA championship game against Marquette.
And, of course, it simply had to be Georgetown in the way when Smith's 1982 team reached the national title game. There was the 6-foot-10 Thompson on the other sideline, his trademark white towel over his shoulder. The two were very close both on and off the court. Thompson's wife once said that when the phone rang at 1 a.m., she knew it would be Smith.
That knowledge changed the course of the game. After Michael Jordan drained a jumper with 17 seconds remaining to give Carolina a 63-62 lead, Thompson chose not to call timeout and set up a final play. He knew Smith's love of multiple defenses, and it impacted his game strategy.
“If you call timeout, you give the other team a chance to set up a defense,” Thompson said after the game. “I didn't know what defense Dean would go into, so what good would a timeout be to me?”
When the game was over, and Smith had won his first national title, he went straight to Thompson. He'd lost national title games before, knew how it felt, and his first priority was to hug his friend.
Thompson eventually won his own national title, taking his Hoyas to the championship in 1984. A little over 30 years later, he'll win another award, this time named after the man who sought his counsel in 1976, embraced him in 1982, and drove him to the airport in 1997.
“On top it seems awkward,” Michael Jordan said recently of the Thompson-Smith relationship. “It's a big tall black guy and a small little white guy finding common ground. The synergy I felt happened between those two is because they loved the game of basketball, loved teaching the game of basketball, and loved their players like people…I couldn't pick a better person to receive the first Dean Smith Award.”
