In the End, Smith Is Simply ‘Tired’ of Job

After 36 years, two national titles, 11 Final Fours, 879 victories and who knows how many packs of cigarettes, Dean Smith bade a tearful adieu Thursday as basketball coach, icon, teacher, mentor and father-figure at North Carolina.

Smith said he was not sick of mind or body: “I’m healthy, except for no exercise.”

He said he was not sick of the game: “I enjoy basketball.”

He said he wasn’t pushed out by Chancellor Michael Hooker, and that his departure was not an orchestrated cover-up of a sinister back-room play.

In the end, Smith concluded, he was tired.

“It’s almost like there’s something wrong,” he said at a news conference on the campus at Chapel Hill, N.C. “I’m 66 years old.”

Smith decided he could no longer conduct clinics, sign autographs, recruit, keep tabs and whereabouts on hundreds of surrogate sons, answer mail, phone calls, questions about “Michael” and continue coaching North Carolina to greatness year after year.

“It’s the out-of-season stuff I didn’t handle well,” Smith said. “I’ve been saying for the last eight years or so, maybe it’s time to go do something else.”

Bill Guthridge, Smith’s loyal assistant for the last 30 years, was introduced as the hand-chosen successor.

“It’s a very difficult situation to follow the greatest coach of all time,” Guthridge said. “It was never my goal to be the head coach at the University of North Carolina.”

They came in flocks to pay homage to the man who won more games than any other college coach. Georgetown Coach John Thompson, an assistant to Smith with the 1976 U.S. Olympic team, stood in the backdrop. Philadelphia 76er Coach Larry Brown, a guard on Smith’s first North Carolina team in 1961-62, flew in for the news conference at the Smith Center.

President Clinton phoned and said, “There is nobody like you. But not just because you won, but because of the way you did it. We all respect and admire you so much.”

Former players and colleagues rushed to the phone to return calls regarding Smith.

“A legend has retired,” said South Carolina Coach Eddie Fogler, a former Tar Heel player and 15-year assistant coach under Smith. “When you look at the record, I have always felt Coach Smith’s record hasn’t gotten the credit it deserved. Being the winningest coach brought more light to it, but it’s hard to put 36 years on a piece of paper and take an overview of it.”

In the news conference crowd stood Scott Williams, class of 1989-90. While he was at North Carolina, Williams’ father shot his mother and then turned the gun on himself.

“I couldn’t imagine having gone through that anywhere else, without my Carolina family,” Williams said. “Coach Smith was there for me constantly. He made sure I was going to class, getting my assignments done, and any time I needed to talk, or just needed someone there for me, he was always there.”

Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bull star whose game-winning shot clinched Smith’s first national championship in 1982 at the New Orleans Superdome, issued a statement from training camp.

“He’s made an impact on so many players, peoples’ lives and now he’s entitled to do that with his family,” Jordan said. “And certainly we support that decision.”

For those close to Smith, the decision wasn’t a surprise. He hinted the end might be near in April at a Florida golf outing with Fogler, Kansas Coach Roy Williams and a longtime friend, Bill Miller.

“I think the seed for this decision has been there for a number of years,” Fogler said. “Last April, it appeared to be a fairly strong seed. I was aware this might be the year. I wasn’t totally surprised.”

Smith said he told Athletic Director Dick Baddour last week that he was 80% sure of his decision but wanted to mull it over the weekend. Smith felt the same early in the week.

Telling his players Wednesday was the hardest part.

“My only guilt, if there is such a word, is that some team, some day, would be my last team,” Smith said. “So yes, there is guilt, and I look in their faces, and I just couldn’t handle that yesterday. I couldn’t if I turned right now. But I still believe it’s best for them, unless I can give them what I want. I owe them--any player that’s played for me, I owe them.”

Player reaction was predictable. Forward Antawn Jamison said Smith had always been a rock of composure. But this was different.

“It was hard because I’ve never seen Coach Smith in that situation,” Jamison said. “We could have won the NCAA championship, or someone could have passed away, and Coach Smith would always have that straight face. But [Wednesday], to see him in that situation, it was kind of hard. It’s just something that you can’t explain. For me, it felt like there was no more of him left.”

As are most things in his life, Smith’s retirement was meticulously planned. Had he announced it after the NCAA tournament, there might have been speculation about his successor. Fogler and Williams have long been the favored candidates, but probably could not have been considered this close to the start of the season.

Smith said he didn’t want announce he would coach one last season.

“Can you imagine how many rocking chairs you’d get around those places?” Smith said of the prospects of a farewell tour.

Grown men thought they could handle this day. Williams, the Kansas coach and a former assistant to Smith, had to excuse himself in Lawrence when the news conference was shown live on ESPN.

“It was very difficult for me to watch the announcement,” Williams said at his own news conference. “I got away from people and I went down to the coaches’ locker room to watch it, because I did not know how I would react. When he said he was retiring it was a very difficult thing to listen to, because of what he means to me.”

Smith isn’t sure what he will do. His wife, Linnea, a psychiatrist, once wrote a paper on post-retirement depression and told Dean he needed to plan for these things.

“Well,” Smith said, “I didn’t plan them as well.”

He said he would like to stay at the school, get in shape, perhaps teach a physical education course.

Or, he could just reflect on his record.

“The record is incredible,” Fogler said. “When you factor in a 96-97% graduation rate, factor in no NCAA violations, in today’s modern game, with recruiting and the media. Thirty-six years at the same school?

“I hate to say never, but there will never be anyone like him.”

Times staff writer Robyn Norwood in Los Angeles and special correspondent Dave Berger in Chapel Hill, N.C., contributed to this story.

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“I think Dean is one of the most innovative coaches I have known. I haven’t known anyone that was able to teach so many things as well as Dean has.--JOHN WOODEN

“When I think of him, I think of excellence and what he’s done for North Carolina, but also what he’s done for ACC . . . and just what he’s done for college basketball.--MIKE KRZYZEWSKI

“He’s a father figure to a lot of players and a lot of people. That’s how he’s always been, very genuine in his attitude toward the players.--MICHAEL JORDAN