TNT’s star consultant since 1998, Kenny Smith has worked alongside the elite of the Great League on a daily basis for more than two decades. But, as a player, he also has a suitcase of good anecdotes to share, starting with his time in his “alma mater” in North Carolina.
A star high school student in New York in the early 1980s, Kenny Smith had a choice for the university box to follow, after being named McDonald’s All American in 1983.
Michael Jordan sans dribble
“I had offers from Duke and Virginia but when I saw who they already had on the team I thought I had to go. [à North Carolina] », says Kenny Smith in the Up The Smoke podcast. “I made my choice when I went to one of their practices. There was Sam Perkins, Brad Daugherty, Michael Jordan. At first I was nervous and didn’t know if I could play with them. I had never seen 2m13 players like theirs. But I couldn’t choose another university knowing that they were going to beat us. I ended up going there. And I was one of the first freshmen to start. Back then it was rare, now it’s almost the norm. »
Logically impressed by the level of talent of the workforce of the Tar Heels, Kenny Smith however was quick to find his place on the campus of Chapel Hill. In this case, he quickly targeted Michael Jordan’s weakness at the time: his dribbling. His ball outfit in general.
An Achilles heel soon reinforced to be one more weapon in the arsenal of the one who will become “His Airness”.
“Sam Perkins was the best player in my freshman year. He had been All-American three times in a row, something that wouldn’t happen today. Michael Jordan was the most dynamic player but Sam was the best player. Because MJ could not control his dribbling well. At the time, I remember, I wanted to defend against him on the small training matches, because I knew that I was going to annoy him on his dribbling. He laughed when he saw me: ‘Ah, you, you think you can defend against me’. And I answered him that it would be easy because his dribbling was rotten! We were warming up all the time. But then he went to the Olympic Games (from 1984). Then he was drafted and he had his NBA season. And the next summer he came back to North Carolina, like all the guys still do. The room is full and there is talent per square meter, we could have beaten any NBA team! Without a doubt. But I see MJ dribbling next to me. He said to me: ‘I worked on my dribbling by the way!’ Me, I had forgotten what I had said to him! [rires] He’s the only guy I can say he turned every weakness he had at the start of his career into strengths at the end of his career. »
« School is in session »
Having become a planetary star with his first titles gleaned in the early 1990s, Michael Jordan was finally reaping the fruits of hard work. The frenzied competitor who wanted to stay on the field at all costs during training at UNC has gradually turned into a winning machine in the NBA. Always with a well-hung tongue.
“He talked a lot, and every day, but, every day, he put his actions on the level of his words. He rocked every time. He took a lot of pride in defense back then. I remember hearing him say, ‘Walter Davis, you’re not going to score today! You’re not going to score anything!’ He had that type of energy every day. »
His aura will only grow year after year as his trophy cabinet grows richer. Each of his summer returns to Chapel Hill becomes an unmissable event. At the time, North Carolina did not have a franchise… Suddenly, the fans of the orange ball all went to UNC to see who would become the future owner of the NBA franchise in the state.
Even stronger, Michael Jordan had developed his own method of announcing his presence.
“When he came back every summer for training sessions, he would call every player’s room number on the team. We heard “dring dring”, a silence of a few seconds and it hung up. And it continued all along the corridor, from room to room. It was Michael calling every room to say, ‘School is going to resume’ [« School is in session »]. We were running in the corridors: ‘Mike is here, Mike is here’. Everyone came to our practices. There were 4,000 people in the hall for our training sessions during the summer, it was incredible! This period of basketball was great. »
The legend Dean Smith
Eternally inspired by Dean Smith, the legendary trainer of the Tar Heels whose name the room now bears, Michael Jordan has only repeated the formulas learned from his coach, adding the “swear words”, adds Kenny Smith in having fun.
More seriously, Dean Smith is truly a model for all these players passed through North Carolina. An anecdote involving the Senegalese interior, Makhtar N’Diaye, particularly tells of the attention and humanity of the coach who entered the Hall of Fame in 1983.
“Mak was not well in training. He was having great difficulty. And Roy Williams and Bill Guthridge, the two assistants at the time, fell on him: ‘What the hell are you doing, get moving!’ etc Coach Smith wasn’t one to swear, he had never sworn, but now he kicks Mak out of practice. Afterwards, Coach Smith goes to see him and asks him if everything is fine, if he is homesick. ‘No, coach, no’. But Mak doesn’t look Coach in the eye, and Coach asks him to: ‘Look at me when I’m talking to you!’ ‘No, coach’. And he asks her again to look at him. ‘Coach, in my culture, looking an adult in the eye is a lack of respect’. Coach tells him OK and leaves. The next day, no Coach Guthridge, nor the rest of the week for that matter. And Mak receives the phone call from his mother: ‘I have a coach with us here, I don’t know him but he says he is coming to learn our culture’. Coach Smith had sent Guthridge to Senegal to learn the culture of Makthar and never make that kind of mistake again. »
Michael Jordan sur Dean Smith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6bGu1gcrXc
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