Saddening News Of Dean Smith

[The Poet]

Just one month after the death of legendary coach John Wooden, a sad story is now coming out regarding Dean Smith, longtime coach and the face of basketball for the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The Fayetteville Observer reports that Smith is suffering from memory loss "severe enough that he often doesn't recognize longtime friends and former players". People near the UNC program say he has good days and bad days, sometimes being "his cheerful, unassuming self, friendly and engaging and surprising people with his memory of little details about their lives. But on the bad days, they say, Smith has great difficulty even remembering people he has worked with and around for years."

One former player who has been very close to Dean Smith, Jerry Stackhouse, has said this: "Father Time humbles all of us as some point. You just hate to see somebody like him who was so sharp mentally and so in tune with everything around him go through this."

My best wishes go out to Coach Smith, to his family and friends, to his former players, assistants, and other co-workers, and to the entire UNC community . . . yes, even including yours truly, as I myself is saddened today.