Nolan Smith ejected from AAU event

See, that headline sounds bad on the surface. What is Nolan Smith, one of the more mild-mannered hoops stars of recent memory, doing getting himself thrown out of AAU games like some overbearing parent?

In reality, Smith was doing his best Norman Dale impression. And guess what? It worked.

CBS's Jeff Goodman spoke with Smith, who was coaching AAU outfit D.C. Assault at a tournament in Phoenix on Wednesday night, and got him to discuss his tactics. According to Smith, D.C. Assault was struggling, the refs were making questionable calls, and the former Duke star decided that he needed to inspire a little "fire" in his kids. To wit:

"It felt good," the usually mild-mannered Smith said just minutes after the game. "Coaching and playing is totally different. I was frustrated with the team not playing hard and not playing with energy. I knew my team would respond in the right way." [...] "We were down 19 when I did it," Smith said. "And we came back and lost by 2."

It's official: I have a mental image of Smith as Hickory High coach Norman Dale. I can just see it. Smith tells the ref to throw him out, the ref says, "well, I guess you've got your reasons," as Smith turns back to the bench and hands his leather notebook to terrified assistant coach Kyle Singler. (Singler wasn't there, but don't ruin this for me; I am greatly enjoying this mental image.) The only thing missing is Singler telling the players to "not get caught watching the paint dry" as he leads them to a miraculous comeback victory. Truly inspirational stuff.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/33388/nolan-smith-ejected-from-aau-event

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