MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A team in North Carolina needed a coach. It hired Dean Smith. Such a move has worked out pretty well in the Tar Heel State before.
And Charlotte FC hopes it works out again.
Meet “the other” Dean Smith, a 52-year-old Englishman who is taking over as coach in Charlotte this season for his first stint in Major League Soccer. He’s fully aware of the legacy that Basketball Hall of Famer Dean Smith left during his 36 years leading the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, about a two-hour drive from Charlotte.
“I definitely knew about him,” Smith, the soccer coach, said Thursday at MLS Media Day. “I think my children, who are grown up now, would often Google my name and it would come up, Dean Smith, the American basketball coach.”
Soccer’s Dean Smith is going to have to win a lot of games to disrupt that algorithm, especially in North Carolina. But he is taking over a Charlotte team that made the playoffs last season, and has hopes of doing the same again in 2024.
“As I’ve said in a previous press conference, if I’m half as successful as he has been at Charlotte FC then I’ve done a good job,” the soccer coach said.
DENVER INSPIRATION
Djordje Mihailovic says the Colorado Rapids don’t have to look far to find inspiration these days. They play in Denver — home of the NBA champion Denver Nuggets and a Colorado Avalanche team that won the Stanley Cup in 2022.
“Colorado’s on a pretty good high in terms of winning,” said Mihailovic, a midfielder who also has spent time with the U.S. Men’s National Team. “And I know the owners have ambitions of keeping that going with the Rapids.”
SHORT WINTER
If it feels like the offseason was short for some teams, that’s because it was.
Columbus and Los Angeles FC played for the MLS Cup on December 9 — barely one full month before the league gathered in South Florida for its media day event. Some teams have been off for considerably longer; the regular season ended on Oct. 21.
“We just played a month ago and mentally you’re still kind of in that mindset of playing games,” Columbus midfielder Darlington Nagbe said. “Something does need to be said about getting the right amount of rest. … Short offseason but I’m looking forward to it.”
