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Former North Carolina basketball player Dante Calabria was known for his low-cut sneakers. When he plays nowadays, he still wears them. Calabria, 35, will be in town Saturday for a day-long basketball academy in his name at Waddell High.
You can bet the low-cuts will be with him. They've carried him a long way.
Calabria played for the Tar Heels in 1992-96 under coach Dean Smith. He was on the 1993 national championship team and played in two Final Fours. After college, he played 13 years of professional ball in Europe. In 2000, he became an Italian citizen and later played for the Italian national team. He's also played in Spain, France and Greece.
Calabria averaged as many as 16.7 points during his European career. He's been a double-figure scorer in five of his past eight seasons. He said he plans to return to Europe this year for a 14th season.
In addition to playing, he's also running youth basketball clinics in cities throughout North Carolina.
I asked Calabria his thoughts on a few topics:
On the coaching transition at North Carolina, from Smith to Bill Guthridge to Matt Doherty to Roy Williams:
“It was a difficult period. After coach Smith, it was a natural transition to coach Guthridge. When he departed, Matt took over. He was a big change from the previous 40 years.
“I supported him 100 percent, as a member of the family. There were some hard times, and all the criticism (that) fell to him and his staff, I don't believe was fair.
“But … when the results are not up to standards that have been set, something has to give. When Roy Williams arrived, winning followed and (it) made everyone happy again. It was unfortunate what transpired (with Doherty), but the bottom line is Carolina is again at the top and an elite program.”
On what he misses most about Chapel Hill (he was part of the big alumni game recently that featured many of the current pro players): “The atmosphere, the campus, so many things. It was a special place to spend four years of college, and always a special place to come back to. I just went for the 100 years alumni game earlier this month. What a special event.”
On working with young kids at his clinics (Calabria works with ages 9-18):
“I believe the younger kids have open minds and are asking to be taught the game of basketball. My goal is to introduce and teach, to the best of our ability, the true and correct fundamentals of the game. I think so many kids, especially the girls, don't have that opportunity. We hope to provide this.”
