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Jordan: Dean Smith was ‘mentor, teacher, 2nd father’

FILE - in this May 5, 1984 file photo, North Carolina guard Michael Jordan, left, and Tar Heels coach Dean Smith are shown at a news conference in Chapel Hill, N.C., where Jordan announced he would forfeit his final year of college eligibility to turn pro. Smith, the North Carolina basketball coaching great who won two national championships, died "peacefully" at his home Saturday night, Feb. 7, 2015, the school said in a statement Sunday from Smith's family. He was 83. (AP Photo, File) FILE - in this May 5, 1984 file photo, North Carolina guard Michael Jordan, left, and Tar Heels coach Dean Smith are shown at a news conference in Chapel Hill, N.C., where Jordan announced he would forfeit his final year of college eligibility to turn pro. Smith, the North Carolina basketball coaching great who won two national championships, died "peacefully" at his home Saturday night, Feb. 7, 2015, the school said in a statement Sunday from Smith's family. He was 83. (AP Photo, File)

By Associated Press February 8, 2015 1 min read

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Michael Jordan called North Carolina coaching great Dean Smith the most influential person in his life other than his parents.

Smith died Saturday night at 83.

In a statement on Twitter released through his business manager, Jordan says Smith was “more than a coach – he was a mentor, my teacher, my second father. Coach was always there for me whenever I needed him and I loved him for it.”

The former NBA superstar and Charlotte Hornets owner says Smith taught him not only about the game of basketball, but about “the game of life.”

Jordan played three seasons for Smith from 1981-84. When he was a freshman he helped lead the Tar Heels to a national championship in 1982, hitting a 16-foot jump shot in the final seconds to beat Georgetown.

Jordan and Smith remained close ever since.