Was never a Dean Smith fan during his coaching days. But became a huge fan several years after he retired when SI ran a feature about his passion and involvement in the death penalty debate.

No first hand interaction with Dean Smith but a couple of summers ago I was in a celebrity golf tournament and one of the players in my foursome was Dudley Bradley. Got to hear some really cool stories but when I asked him about Smith he got quiet and mentioned how sad a time it was for him because the man he knew was no longer there. He said Smith had a remarkable memory and even 30 years later would ask how his parents were doing and mentioned their names. He said it wasn't a gimmick either, he truly cared about his players. He echoed what Michael Jordan said about him. And remember he took the time out of his day to come down to talk to our players when we played there (2003 I think?)

On a side note, I asked him about how Maryland fans treated him because of his defection (he was a Baltimore kid) to UNC and he said it got kind of harsh but it was fun in a way too. But he said the big take away was how good of a man Lefty Driesell was. He said that Lefty still called his mom every year on her birthday and called him occasionally just to say hi. You hear a lot of stories about the bad side of college sports but you don't hear enough about the really good stories. There are some really good people out there.

Thanks for taking the time to share your stories, OUVan. Interesting and enjoyable to read. Some here might be surprised at how much of this kind of stuff goes on across and within programs. The same goes for player families in different programs -- many have known each other a long time.

You say he didn't return his phone call. I say he was just running four corners waiting for the right opportunity.

Any busy leader is susceptible to forgetting to return phone calls here and there. Why focus on that in this sad time for the basketball community?