US college coaching legend Smith dies

CHAPEL HILL, United States — Dean Smith, a US college basketball coaching legend who mentored Michael Jordan and dozens of other NBA stars, has died at 83, his family announced Sunday.

The former University of North Carolina coach, who guided the 1976 US Olympic team to gold at Montreal, died in Chapel Hill, the home city of his Tar Heel teams that became iconic in American college basketball during his run as coach at the school from 1961 to 1997.

Smith coached the Tar Heels to US national championships in 1982 and 1993 and 11 trips to the "Final Four" of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament.

Jordan, who won six NBA crowns for the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, was on Smith's 1982 college championship squad and said Smith had a major impact upon him on and off the court.

"Other than my parents, no one had a bigger influence on my life than coach Smith," Jordan said in a statement.

"He was more than a coach – he was my mentor, my teacher, my second father. Coach was always there for me whenever I needed him and I loved him for it.

"In teaching me the game of basketball, he taught me about life. We've lost a great man who had an incredible impact on his players, his staff and the entire UNC family."

In 1967, Smith recruited Charlie Scott to North Carolina, making the state prep star the first African-American athlete to receive a scholarship to the college and helping push desegregation.

Scott became a 1970s NBA star but was far from the last player Smith guided to make an impact at the professional level, a list notably including Jordan, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter and Rasheed Wallace.

President Barack Obama, who awarded Smith the Medal of Freedom in 2013, paid tribute to Smith when he said: "America lost not just a coaching legend but a gentleman and a citizen.