Book Review "A Coach's Life"

I read a book called A Coach's Life: My Forty Years in College Basketball. I found this book to be very beneficial in my journey of being a coach so far. This book gave you an inside look at Dean Smith’s life on and off the court. He is considered to be one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time. He won 13 conference championships, two national championships, an Olympic gold medal, and he had 24 players go in the first round of the NBA draft. The thing I liked about him was that he was not only a coach but he was someone who had a major impact on the lives of young men. He didn’t just spend time with the best players he gave his total attention to all the players. The most impressive statistic is that 98% of his players earned college degrees, and a high percentage of them went on to graduate and professional schools. I really enjoyed this book because Coach Smith shared his basketball philosophy and mindset about the game today. He told about some of the controversial things that happened such as the desegregating of his North Carolina basketball team in the 1960s. One of the most important things that I liked was that he was a strong leader who showed his players how to win the right way on and off the court. In conclusion, I really benefited from the book because I plan on taking some of his ideas using them with my coaching style. I plan on developing my philosophy similar to him because I want to make a difference in the lives of young people on and off the court.