Robert Smith, burnout and golf

Jerry Tarkanian

Friday, March 6, 2009 | 9:10 p.m.

I was just about to mention Robert Smith in my last piece, but it got to be a bit long. Then I see where he will be inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame.

That was great. He’s one of the best players and one of the greatest people you’ll ever meet. I was so happy.

UNLV should retire Robert’s jersey. He’s the best free-throw shooter in the history of the program and No. 7 all-time with 445 assists.

As nice a person as you’ll ever meet. A great player and a great citizen, a great ambassador for basketball. He went to the Denver Nuggets and Larry Brown told me he was the nicest kid he’d ever coached.

He was part of that great group in 1976-77 that put UNLV on the map.

He’s working with kids in Las Vegas, and every time you see him he has that smile on his face. He’s absolutely wonderful.

We weren’t even sure he was good enough to play for us, and he winds up being one of the greatest guards we ever had.

We recruited Robert because he was a teammate of Marques Johnson’s at Crenshaw High in Los Angeles. We recruited Marques when we were at Long Beach State, then we took the UNLV job and knew we couldn’t get him.

Robert went to junior college, at Arizona Western. A former assistant of mine at Long Beach was at a JC in Scottsdale, Ariz., and he told me Robert’s a great kid but, coach, I’m not sure he can play for you.

This coach said Robert was second-team all-conference in that league. Usually we wouldn’t recruit a guy like that. But I didn’t like my team that first year at UNLV at all. One (bleep) after another.

There were a bunch of players from the previous season and guys that I recruited. They didn’t get along or speak to each other. It was a hard year.

After that, a booster had a little plane and wanted to go somewhere. I said, Let’s go to Arizona Western and see Robert Smith. Four or five of us flew down for their playoffs.

We walk into the gym and Robert gives me the biggest smile. He still has that same smile on his face. I said, Hell, we’re taking this guy. I haven’t had anyone smile at me all year.

It was so nice to see someone smile. He was absolutely sensational for us. He came in that first season after junior college and he started on our team. He made our team go. The next season he was our captain.

I run into Robert a lot. He worked out with my granddaughter. He’d come over to the house just to work out with her. Just a great person. Every time you see him he’s got that big smile.

Someone asked me about coaches burning out. That could happen, but I never got burned out. I was just so into it. When I was coaching, that was everything with me.

It was the last thing I thought about when I went to bed and the first thing I thought about when I woke up.

As a coach, you have to be into it totally. You can’t do a lot of other things. Jimmy Valvano did other things. I was amazed how he could do that, but he was so different.

He was the smartest coach I have ever been around. He could talk about the stock market, the economy, anything. But I’ve written a lot about him.

When I was coaching, I didn’t even know who was running for president. I never paid attention. Lois would tell me who to vote for. When Danny got older, he would tell me who to vote for.

When I was at Riverside City College, there was a coach at Chaffey College about 30 minutes from us who hosted a golf tournament for other coaches.

I never played in the tournament. There was a dinner and they’d give awards, to who had the longest drive or came closest to the pin or had the longest putt.

Invariably, the guys who were winning the awards and the golf tournament, their teams were coming in last place or at the bottom of the conference.

I made up my mind. I never wanted to play golf.