30 years later, UNC women's basketball great Charlotte Smith's iconic shot lives on 4 3 2024
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Though Smith has evinced some newfound confidence before the public, the press still has to pry comments about her own accomplishments out of her. It's only through her friends that one learns that she has a beautiful singing voice and likes to sit down at the piano in empty hotel lobbies to pick out gospel tunes for her teammates. But she still won't entertain the idea of singing the national anthem at a home game; indeed, she scoffs at the mere suggestion. "I knew if anybody was going to make that shot, Charlotte would," says Thompson, who watched the game with his family in Charlotte, N.C., and started dancing around the house when the shot went in.
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The following season would feature another career high scoring average (20.1) for Smith, as he continued to serve as the Hawks' main option on offense. Smith played well against Detroit and held his own against Michael Jordan and the defending champion Chicago Bulls, who defeated the Hawks in 5 games in the semifinals. The following season would be similar to Smith as he once again averaged 20.1 points a game, but this time managed to be named an NBA All-Star as he scored 14 points in 16 minutes of action in the 1998 NBA All-Star Game. The Hawks would disappoint in the playoffs yet again however, this time losing to the Charlotte Hornets 3 games to 1 in the conference semifinals despite a 24.8 ppg scoring average by Smith for the series. Which is one reason why no one in the North Carolina huddle blinked when, during the timeout with .7 remaining and the Tar Heels trailing Louisiana Tech 59-57, coach Sylvia Hatchell appointed Smith to deliver them from their nearly hopeless situation. So what if there was barely enough time for a sharp intake of breath?
Post-NBA career
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Smith said she was "out of it" mentally during the first huddle, when North Carolina drew up a lob play to center Sylvia Crawley. But when inbounds passer Stephanie Lawrence saw that Louisiana Tech had that covered, she called a timeout. She had to ask Crawley what the play was as they returned to the court.
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"It opened up a world of opportunity and any time you give someone an opportunity, you give them a chance to be all that they can be." As a kid, she thought her only path to a pro career might be in the NBA. Years later, Smith still wasn’t sure why Hatchell picked her to take the shot. When they were traveling together when Hatchell was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Smith asked.
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Elon University Athletics
However, she is better known for her lengthy and successful career at North Carolina State. Charlotte Smith (born August 23, 1973) is a forward for the Charlotte Sting. In the fall of 1996, the American Basketball League (ABL) was formed as the first independent professional basketball league for women in the U.S. "Women's basketball was not highly televised, so it was hard to see role models," Smith said in a phone interview this week after a workout at Elon, where she coaches now. "I didn't have any female role models to look up to with regard to having an opportunity to play professionally. So, as a little girl, I always thought that I would play in the NBA and never imagined there being a chance for a WNBA. She graduated from Shelby High, and grew up watching her uncle, David Thompson, become one of the best players in the country in his time at NC State.
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Gosling plays a stunt man in “The Fall Guy,” which kicks off this year’s summer movie season in theaters on Friday. Gosling and Day debuted their live-action take on the animated characters on “Saturday Night Live” last month, causing cast member Heidi Gardner and several other performers to break into laughter during the sketch. The bit, with Beavis and Butthead sitting in the audience of a panel discussion about artificial intelligence, has been viewed more than 13 million times on YouTube. Gosling, who stars in “The Fall Guy” opposite Emily Blunt, walked the carpet twice Tuesday during the Los Angeles premiere.
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Another interesting sidelight is that Hatchell was an assistant coach for the 1988 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team which won the gold medal at the Games in Seoul, Korea. The ball slithered through the net for Smith’s only 3-pointer of the season, UNC won 60–59, and the Tar Heels (33–2) were national champions on a memorable Sunday afternoon that fans, players and coaches will never forget.
And after an All-America career for the Tar Heels, which saw her hit the buzzer-beater to lift the Tar Heels to a victory over Louisiana Tech for the 1994 NCAA crown, her jersey was retired, just like Mike’s was. She also joined him – and her uncle — in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. "We had enough talent to have two gold-medal teams at the Olympics. We're not growing the game with the level of the talent that we have. We need more opportunities," she said, adding that she'd like to see another WNBA team in Charlotte. Smith spent most of her 8-year WNBA career with the Charlotte Sting, playing close to home in front of an adoring fan base, with teammates like NC State playmaker Andrea Stinson and current South Carolina coach Dawn Staley. The ABL folded after two seasons, but the WNBA is still around, with 12 franchises and plenty of chatter about expansion. The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy.
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On June 22, 2011, Smith was named the head women's basketball coach at Elon University, becoming the sixth head coach in program history. In her first season leading the Phoenix, she set a new school record for wins by a first-year head coach. Charlotte Smith was named the 2017 CAA Coach of the Year and Elon won its first CAA Regular Season title and its first CAA Conference tournament title in Division 1 History. Elon also earned its first bid in the NCAA tournament in school history.
"A lot of people don't recall this, but I couldn't throw the ball in the ocean in the first half of that game. I had zero points, and I took quite a few shots. "I've gone back and watched that game quite a few times," Smith said. "You get down to the last 4½ minutes of the game, and we're right there. Then we let a player get loose in transition twice for 3-pointers. After being the star of her Shelby High school team, she headed to the University of North Carolina. Yow, a native of Gibsonville and a graduate of East Carolina, has a kinship with Smith in terms of career, as Yow was also the head coach at Elon from 1971 to ‘75.
The Phoenix lost three starters from that team but returned leading scorer Shay Burnett, a guard who's one of three seniors for Elon. Those seniors are kept busy mentoring six freshmen and three sophomores; there are no juniors. Burnett is the team's second-leading scorer (13.4 PPG) behind 6-foot-4 sophomore center Ra'Shika White (14.3 PPG). She was actually the first full-time women’s college coach in the state of North Carolina, when Yow was hired to be the volleyball, women’s basketball and slow-pitch softball coach at State. Smith also represented the U.S. internationally, most notably winning a gold medal and MVP honors in the 1996 Jones Cup. She also played in the 1995 World University Games and was a member of the South Team in the 1993 U.S.
As a Laser, she was named to the ABL All-Star team for the 1997–1998 season. Genesis Hernandez was transferring from a Metro bus to catch the E Line to Santa Monica, where she attends college when “all of a sudden I just saw a bunch of ambulances going by,” she recalled. Charlotte Smith's 200th coaching victory is a testament to her exceptional leadership and the team's success under her guidance, setting the stage for continued achievements in the future.
"I'm blessed to have so many stories to draw from to help give them the encouragement they need to be the players they can be." "She is one of those players that has so much potential, and I don't think she can understand how good she can be," Smith said of White. Elon's campus in North Carolina is often listed as one of the most beautiful in the country. But not much looked prettier to coach Charlotte Smith than seeing "Elon" pop up on the NCAA tournament bracket last season. Like her uncle and cousin NC State Hoop stars David Thompson and Dereck Whittenburg, Charlotte could really jump.
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