Childress: Smith Emphasized Life After Basketball

Basketball fans across the nation have been mourning the death of legendary UNC coach Dean Smith, who died Sunday at the age of 83.

Wake Forest assistant basketball coach Randolph Childress was recruited by Smith as a high school senior, but ended up playing for the Deacons. He says even during the recruitment process, Smith focused on issues beyond the basketball court.

“He spoke as much about what my life was going to be like after I was done playing as much as it was about playing," Childress says. "And at that time you're kind of looking at him like “What?' I want to hear about what's going to happen in six months, not 20 to 30 years. And when you're 17, 18-years old and someone's telling you ‘40' you're thinking ‘That sounds like 120.' You're like ‘What? That's old.' Here I am in my 40's and I'm like ‘Wow, I get it now.''

During his playing career, the two teams squared off in some notable games, including the final of the 1995 ACC Tournament, which Wake Forest won on a shot by Childress as the clock wound down.

The game created one of Childress' more memorable moments, when he made a play that put a defender on the ground, and then taunted him before sinking a shot. Childress says that play captured the competitive nature of the two men.

"When I made the move I remember Coach Smith yelling behind me 'He can't do that, that's taunting, that should be a technical foul!' So I'm sure in the heat of the moment I probably irritated him a bit, and that's my job," Childress says. "I'm proud to say I was able to pluck his nerves a little bit. But I'm also proud to say that he was someone who sought me out and wanted to help me out.”

Dean Smith was UNC's head coach from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. He won more than 800 games and two national championships with the Tar Heels.

Gov. Pat McCrory ordered state flags to fly at half-staff through sunset Wednesday in honor of Coach Smith.