'Capital Games': 'Courage' and the Political Legacy of Dean Smith

— -- The death of legendary North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith has brought an outpouring of memories about his on-court triumphs, and to his off-court forays into political and policy fights.

From his integration of the North Carolina basketball team and local restaurants as a young coach, to his post-coaching push to banish the death penalty, Smith showed “courage” in standing up for his beliefs in a way that would be hard to replicate these days, Rep. David Price, D-N.C., said on the ESPN/ABC podcast “Capital Games.”

“He was a steady presence I would say, not just using celebrity for the cause,” Price said of Smith, who died Saturday at the age of 83.

The congressman had known Smith since the late 1950s, when Price was an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina and Smith was an assistant coach just starting his legendary career.

“A lot of people get pulled in for a cause, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” he added. “But with Dean, it was never a matter of getting pulled in at a critical moment. He had been there all along.”

You can listen to the full episode of “Capital Games” HERE on desktop and HERE on mobile devices. You can also subscribe to the podcast free on Apple devices using the podcast app.

It’s hard to imagine a sports figure today playing a similar role, Price said.

“People have less respect for figures of authority, people are so set in their views, it seems,” he said. “It’s a loss. It’s a loss of a figure of great thoughtfulness and great integrity. Dean Smith in our own day - you do wonder what kind of impact he could have, or would he run against the shoals of this very polarized and very ideological politics that we have.

“We’re a lot worse off as a community if a person of Dean Smith caliber can’t have that kind of impact; that’s a real loss,” Price added.

Also on the program, former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt recalled the time Smith told him, to his face, “you’re a murderer,” to highlight his feeling that everyone in the state was complicit on capital punishment, which Smith strongly opposed. The interview Hunt conducted with Andy Katz first aired on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” Tuesday.

“Dean Smith didn’t believe in taking lives,” Hunt said. “He was opposed to capital punishment, and he had the courage or you might say the guts to come in and tell the governor and other high officials that it was wrong to do it. I admired it. I didn’t agree with him, but I certainly admired it.

“Most people know him as a great coach,” he said. “Dean was a great and strong human being. He believed in doing what was right, and what was right was treating everybody as a good human being, a child of God, and giving them full and equal opportunities. An amazing kind of example to set in the South or anywhere in America.”

“Capital Games with Andy Katz and Rick Klein” is a regular podcast series that’s part of the “ESPN Perspectives” series. It explores the intersection of sports and politics.

You can listen to the full episode of “Capital Games” HERE on desktop and HERE on mobile devices.