Basketball Hall-of-Famer coach: Dean Smith - Memory Loss?
There were rumours about Dean Smith’s memory loss floating around and recently his family has confirmed this to be true. Smith, widely known as a legendary college basketball coach, served for the team Tar Heels at University of North Carolina.
Dean’s family says he is suffering from a “progressive neurocognitive disorder,” which has resulted into him forgetting information from his past. His children said in a statement released to the media, that their father may not be remembered quite like he used to be. It’s sad how he was a man who remembered everything, name, places, games, stories which made people feel special because he remembered everything.
The Hall-of-Famer coach is losing some of his remarkable memories according to his family; they have reportedly sent a letter to former coaches and players regarding Smith’s health concerns. The letter said Smith may not recall the name of every former player immediately, but that does not lessen the fact how much he cared about the players or how much they meant to him.
Rumours about Smiths memory loss began in July 2010, when The Fayetteville Observer, wrote about his weakening memory and just after a week an author named John Feinstein, who was supposed to collaborate with Dean Smith to write a biography about him, posted on his blog stating he had to back off because of Smiths’ memory related issues.
Smith was known to keep a low-profile after his retirement; his family insists that the 79 year old still meets with former players occasionally at his office in Chapel Hill and returns mails to his fans. He still plays golf only but only nine holes instead of eighteen and since he can’t travel long distances, he still watches every Tar Heel basketball game on TV cheering for the team and their current coach, Williams.
A player named Eric Montross from Dean’s second national team and now is a sports analyst on radio said that the letter put things into perspective and was ‘perfect’ it had cleared the rumours out about Dean’s health issues. Eric Montross said, "(The family) felt a real need to address some of the comments that were not accurate. Everybody's curious because the general public doesn't come into contact with Coach Smith very often. They care about him, they want to know about him and they're interested in how he's doing.”
Smith’s wife, Linnea who is a psychiatrist said that smith had gone under two surgeries in December 2007, one for aortic aneurysm and the other for a knee replacement, to which she characterized as “cardiological and neurological complications”.
Smith’s health has been a sensitive matter, and many former players and coaches declined comments regarding it when approached by reporters. Smith’s family said "Coach Smith wanted to keep his professional and personal life separate. But as we all know, the personal and professional life can sometimes overlap, and we understand that many fans, former players and friends are concerned about his well-being."
In 1976, Smith took the U.S Olympic basketball team aka “The Redeem Team” to win a Gold Medal in the Summer Olympics held in Montreal, Canada.
Dean Smith has been an aspiring coach throughout his career; he has won 879 games holding a record which was not broke until 2007. He retired in 1997, after leading the Tar Heels to 36 seasons. He has won two NCAA championships once in 1982 and ’93. His legacy goes beyond just coaching college teams but also mentoring legends like Michael Jordon and Larry Brown. He is also credited for creating many basketball techniques such as “tired signal” and known for creating amazing defensive sets which include, double-teaming and the run and jump.
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