As Easy as A-B-C
Are the ’98 Heels the greatest UNC team to not win it all? by Dan Wiederer
A
s the word surfaced—trickling out slowly at first, then spreading like the popularity of Titanic and the Internet—a state of shock blanketed the state of North Carolina. Wait. Dean Smith is retiring? Can’t be. Now? It was October 1997. Smith was 66 years old. Seven months earlier, he had leapfrogged the legendary Adolph Rupp as the all-time winningest basketball coach in Division I history. He had 879 career wins to his name, 11 Final Four appearances, and national championship triumphs in 1982 and 1993. Oh, and the squad he had assembled for the 1997–98 season was being hyped as a national title frontrunner, loaded with stars (Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, and Shammond Williams, to name three) and solidified with superb complementary parts like Ed Cota, Ademola Okulaja, and Makhtar Ndiaye. Boy, it sure didn’t seem right. Smith, the man who defined North Carolina basketball, the legend whose name was on the Tar Heels’ arena, was calling it quits just six days before practice began? With such a talent-loaded team? “I knew some team, some day would be my last,” Smith said at an unforgettable press conference that made his decision official. “Yes, there is guilt. I look at [the players’] faces and I just couldn’t handle that. But I still believe this is best for them, unless I could give them what I want to.” Throughout the program, the shock was obvious. “He’s the father we all have at school,” Shammond Williams said. “And he’s not going to be here anymore.” Yet as painful as the news was, Smith also felt the timing was right. Not only had he run out of gas, but he was making his announcement at a time that would allow longtime right-hand man Bill Guthridge to take over as head coach with a team that was more than talented enough to make a run at the national title. © 2010 Maple Street Press, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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