As most anyone who's known Muggsy Bogues would attest, he doesn't give up easily.

There was this pretty lady he'd met the night of ex-teammate Dell Curry's retirement celebration in 2003. He gave her his cell phone number, but two weeks had passed and she hadn't called.

So former Charlotte Hornet Bogues went through his financial advisor at Wachovia to track down Sharon Smith. They talked, they clicked and they dated steadily the past five years, right up until Smith succumbed to cancer Thursday at Carolinas Medical Center.

“She was such a fighter. Every step of the way, she never thought this thing would beat her,'' Bogues said Sunday night.

A branch manager in Charlotte at Wachovia and RBC Centura, Smith first learned she had breast cancer in 2005. Treatment appeared to put the disease in remission, but in 2007 doctors discovered additional cancer while removing her ovaries, Bogues said.

Smith, 42, left behind sons Alonzo and Jaron and daughter Bianca.

Her funeral will be Tuesday at 10a.m. in her hometown of Fayetteville. The service will be at Simon Temple AME Zion Church at 5760 Yadkin Road. Bogues recently has done radio analysis on Charlotte Bobcats broadcasts, but generally only for home games.

That was so he could stay close to Charlotte, to help care for Smith.

“I arranged my schedule around my sons and her needs,” Bogues said. “I didn't want her driving to her appointments while she was going through this.”

Smith's father, James, died of pancreatic cancer in January. The decision not to hold a memorial service in Charlotte was an effort to lower the burden on Smith's mother, Nellie.

“She just buried her husband, and they'd been married 40-some years,” Bogues said. “Now she must bury her daughter. We didn't want to put her through anything more.”

As most anyone who's known Muggsy Bogues would attest, he doesn't give up easily.

There was this pretty lady he'd met the night of ex-teammate Dell Curry's retirement celebration in 2003. He gave her his cell phone number, but two weeks had passed and she hadn't called.

So former Charlotte Hornet Bogues went through his financial advisor at Wachovia to track down Sharon Smith. They talked, they clicked and they dated steadily the past five years, right up until Smith succumbed to cancer Thursday at Carolinas Medical Center.

“She was such a fighter. Every step of the way, she never thought this thing would beat her,'' Bogues said Sunday night.

A branch manager in Charlotte at Wachovia and RBC Centura, Smith first learned she had breast cancer in 2005. Treatment appeared to put the disease in remission, but in 2007 doctors discovered additional cancer while removing her ovaries, Bogues said.

Smith, 42, left behind sons Alonzo and Jaron and daughter Bianca.

Her funeral will be Tuesday at 10a.m. in her hometown of Fayetteville. The service will be at Simon Temple AME Zion Church at 5760 Yadkin Road. Bogues recently has done radio analysis on Charlotte Bobcats broadcasts, but generally only for home games.

That was so he could stay close to Charlotte, to help care for Smith.

“I arranged my schedule around my sons and her needs,” Bogues said. “I didn't want her driving to her appointments while she was going through this.”

Smith's father, James, died of pancreatic cancer in January. The decision not to hold a memorial service in Charlotte was an effort to lower the burden on Smith's mother, Nellie.

“She just buried her husband, and they'd been married 40-some years,” Bogues said. “Now she must bury her daughter. We didn't want to put her through anything more.”