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Bill Robinson describes the commotion when Dean Smith comes to a Carolina Basketball School gym
Aug 13, 2026
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or musing stories.
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>> Yeah. My favorite story, and this is
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really how it got started, too, is I
0:06
used to tell the story, and then people
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would be like, "Man, you got to write a
0:09
book." And that that's kind of But this
0:11
was the story. We had a a kid in our our
0:14
camp at 11 years old at uh Chapel Hill
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Auxiliary Gym, this tiny little gym.
0:21
Coach Holidayiday walks in and says,
0:22
"There's Sam Combmes here, first day of
0:24
camp." And, "Oh, yeah, he's right there.
0:26
Why? He's just a little kid." He said,
0:27
'Oh, that's Coach Smith's grandson. And
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we're all like, "Oh, geez." Well, that
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afternoon I went to the afternoon
0:34
session, walking down the h the tunnel
0:36
off the off the court. I run smack into
0:39
Coach Smith and his secretary.
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>> Wow.
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>> And I said, "Hey, coach, you know, we've
0:44
got, you know, your grandson in in camp
0:46
and he won the free throw shooting
0:47
contest first day." He said, "I think
0:50
about coming out and watching him play
0:51
tonight." And I said, "Great."
0:55
>> And I thought, "Oh, no.
0:57
this is going to be a mess if we have
0:59
coach Smith in the gym with a bunch of
1:00
11 year olds. Told my staff on the bus
1:02
over that he might show up and
1:06
um we're just going to do things as
1:08
normal and just kind of run through it.
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Well, we started the games and nobody
1:11
was there. The bleachers are pushed in.
1:13
It's auxiliary gym to run side courts.
1:15
There's no bleachers on the other side.
1:16
I took two chairs, put them over there
1:18
for coach and his daughter. And about 10
1:20
minutes into the game, kids playing ran
1:23
to the back exit.
1:25
>> Jeez. And I'm like, "What is going on?
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The kids are just running off the
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court." Well, Coach Smith had walked in.
1:30
So, I ran out. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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Stop, stop, stop. Got coach over to his
1:35
seat. I said, "Coach, what do you want
1:36
me to do? These kids want to meet you."
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And I mean, I'll be honest. I I want
1:39
them to meet you, too. I mean, this is a
1:41
once in a lifetime opportunity for these
1:42
kids. He said, "Billy, if you're just
1:44
having, you know, don't overwhelm me."
1:46
We stopped the games, brought the kids
1:48
over by teams, you know, six or seven
1:50
kids at the time, made a line, shook
1:52
hands, just about got through. The side
1:54
door opens and Tyler Hansboro walks in,
1:57
reigning national player of the year.
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>> Wow.
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>> So, I go over to Tyler. I'm like,
2:00
"Tyler, Coach Smith's here. Is there any
2:02
way Can we just go to the hallway?" He's
2:04
like, "Yeah, coach, no problem." So,
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Tyler goes to the hallway. We get him
2:07
set up out there. We stop the games. We
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walk the kids over to them. I walk back
2:11
in the gym and one of my my buddies
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says, "Uh, hey, hey, hey, Bill. I hear
2:15
the president's on his way. Haha.
2:17
[laughter]
2:19
10 minutes later, Roy Williams walks in
2:22
[laughter]
2:23
and the kids start running to him. I
2:24
said, "No." I said, "No." I said, "You
2:27
got to see Coach Smith. You got to see
2:29
Tyler, but we are going to finish games
2:31
tonight. If you want coach's autograph,
2:33
you're gonna have to find him outside
2:34
the, you know, Granville Towers tomorrow
2:36
or something else like that." But that
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was absolutely the craziest night and uh
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one of the most wonderful. There's a
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chapter in there called uh
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