In a recent interview with The Shadow League, A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg shared his relationship with sports and how he eventually got into basketball after dabbling in baseball and football. Most could tell Phife was a sports fanatic by the many sports references in his raps, but Phife shares in this interview that he was mostly intrigued by the coaching in basketball, and that his idols included Pat Riley, John Thompson, and the recently deceased Dean Smith.

Phife goes into detail about how he watched Dean go from an underdog to a champion with the University of North Carolina’s Tar Heels in the early 1980’s (after signing a freshman Michael Jordan), and tells a story of how he attended his very first UNC home game at Chapel Hill almost a year ago. He talks about feeling hurt that he never got to meet Dean Smith, and also gets into his reaction upon hearing of Dean’s passing while waiting to board a flight. To find out just how much Phife loves Dean Smith and the UNC basketball program, read the whole story here.

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