Dean Smith, the Ultimate Servant Leader

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Dean Smith died Saturday at age 83. Sadly, it has been a long goodbye for those who knew and loved Coach Smith. In 2010, it was first reported that Coach Smith suffered from a progressive memory disorder. I cannot imagine what it is like for someone to lose one’s brain function, but I do know firsthand how gut-wrenching it can be to see loved ones die before our eyes. On the positive side, being around someone dying is an opportunity to express your love.

Still, the loss of Dean Smith is profound. He was a great coach, husband, father. He taught young men how to maximize their basketball abilities. He provided lifelong lessons that extended far beyond basketball. He looked out for his former players, making sure he did all he could to ensure their success. He was important change-agent for social justice. He was also one of the greatest coaches in college basketball history.

The beautiful essence of Coach Smith’s life is that his legacy lives on in many powerful ways. Through Coach Smith’s former players and assistant coaches. Through his connection to the civil rights movement. And through life lessons that transcend basketball that he has taught so many of us.

Coach Raveling talks a lot about coaches being “servant leaders.” Certainly, if you visit Coach Raveling’s website, Coaching for Success, you are well versed in this concept.

As Coach Raveling likes to ask, “How may coaches teach players how to be leaders? Don’t tell them they should be a leader. Show them how to be a leader.”

Robert K. Greenleaf coined “The Servant as Leader.” In a 1970 essay, Greenleaf wrote:

“The servant-leader is servant first…The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?“

Let’s look at Coach Smith through that lens.

There are many great stories that illustrate his ability to use basketball to teach his players about life. Sure he won a lot of college basketball games. 879 to be precise. He also won two NCAA national championships. He made sure his players went to class and leave North Carolina with a degree. He was always proud to tell people that 97% of his players graduated.

Smith’s totals at North Carolina were impressive: 879 victories, 11 Final Fours and two NCAA Championships. But it did not start out so great. After succeeding Frank Maguire in 1961, Smith’s first team at North Carolina went 8-9. (Quick tangent: 17 games. No ESPN. No jittery athletic directors wondering how to keep boosters happy. Players go to class. Take real classes. Play basketball as an extracurricular activity. Funny how it worked once upon a time.) After five seasons, Smith’s career record was 66 wins, 48 losses and zero NCAA appearances. Similar to John Wooden who did not win his first NCAA championship until his 17th season at UCLA.

He stood for something much greater than wins and losses.

In 1966, Smith recruited and signed the ACC’s first African American basketball player.

Richard Lapchick described the historic events:

[Charles] Scott, who had left New York City to finish high school at the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina, began to develop trust in Smith during his recruiting trip, when the coach asked him if he wanted to attend a service at his church. I was a committed Catholic boy who at about this time attended church in Chapel Hill. I was told the church was integrated, but I stopped going after I saw the African-Americans attending the mass line up for communion after the white people left. But Smith’s church was one of the few fully integrated churches in the area. That impressed Scott. While most casual acquaintances and fans called Scott “Charlie,” he preferred “Charles.” Smith always addressed him as “Charles.” Choosing North Carolina was a slam dunk for Scott. He enrolled and began defining the modern-day UNC basketball legacy being built by Smith.

There is also a great story about Michael Jordan recalled in David Halberstam’s wonderful book, Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made.

Halberstam talked about Jordan being late to a preseason exhibition game at North Carolina that he was attending. There were parking spaces so his friend (and now Charlotte Hornets executive) Fred Whitfield suggested they park in a handicap space. Jordan would not think of doing that. Said Jordan, “Oh no, I couldn’t do that. If Coach Smith ever knew I had parked in a handicapped zone he’d make me feel terrible—I wouldn’t be able to face him.”

Dean Smith’s impact on his players did not end when they left North Carolina.

Remember Michael Jordan wore UNC practice shorts under his Chicago Bulls shorts.

Halberstam wrote, “The hold that Dean Smith had on him, the degree of his respect, was immense. He had taken away from Carolina not just great discipline to go with his natural ability but something more, a sense of right and wrong and how you were supposed to behave on a basketball court and away from it as well.”

Dante Calabria played on UNC’s 1993 National Championship team. Calabria remembered how involved Smith was in players’ lives.

After Calabria was cut from a team in France, he mmediately got a call from Coach Smith.

Calabria recounted the conversation to Mike Decourcy, “He said, ‘I heard the news. Don’t worry. We’re going to get you somewhere else,’” Calabria said. “Everyone always hears and sees the basketball stuff coach did, but that’s only a fraction of what he did for us as players and for people in general. If it was one of his ex-players, he had time for you.”

That captures Coach Smith, an amazing human being embodied what it means to be a true servant-leader.