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Summary: About A Coach's Life
Review: When Dean Smith retired from the University of North Carolina in 1997 as the most successful college basketball coach in history, he left behind a long list of staggering statistics,including seventeen Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season titles, thirteen ACC tournament championships, twenty-three consecutive NCAA tournament bids, two national championships, NCAA records for twenty-five-win seasons and consecutive trips to the tournament Sweet 16 (thirteen), an Olympic gold medal, and twenty-four first-round NBA draft picks. A special panel assembled by ABC and ESPN named him one of the seven greatest coaches of the twentieth century in any sport. Another measure of Dean Smith's legacy is his profound impact on the lives of the players he coached. From Michael Jordan to the last man on the bench of his least gifted team, Dean Smith's players all credit him with forging in them the values of discipline, respect, camaraderie, and fortitude that laid the groundwork for their success in basketball and in life. Ninety-eight percentof his players earned college degrees, and a high percentage went on to graduate and professional schools.In A Coach's Life, for the first time, Dean Smith tells the full story of his fabled career. With warmth, humor, and unflinching candor, he gives readers the best seat in the house--the view from the bench--for all of the memorable games, players, coaches, and teams, including North Carolina's fierce rivalries, their darkest hours, and their greatest triumphs. He explains his basketball philosophy and its sources, the origins of his many innovations to the game, and his thoughts on the issues and challenges facing college basketball today. He talks about his roots in family and faith,the source of much of his strength in taking controversial stands on social issues over the years, such as desegregating the Carolina basketball team in the early 1960s. He relates incisive leadership lessons distilled from five decades of showing young men how to win the right way, on the court and off. A Coach's Life is a book about basketball filled with wisdom about living. To read it is to understand why Dean Smith made everyone around him better, and to see that even in the most competitive of arenas, doing good and doing well can be one and the same thing.
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Summary: Must read for any college hoops fan!
Review: You don't have to be a UNC fan to appreciate this autobiography. All you need to be is appreciative of college hoops and about a coach and school that did things the right way for over 33 years. In the days of boosters, offering anything under the sun, and players leaping from high school or after their freshamn year to the NBA, it is refreshing to read about a coach whose players would do anyhting for their beloved coach and a coach who would still do anything for his former players.
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