Big Smooth won at every level. He was a starter on the 1982 North Carolina team that won the national championship alongside James Worthy and a freshman named Michael Jordan, a three-time All-American in Chapel Hill, and a gold medalist with the 1984 United States Olympic team in Los Angeles.

Dallas took him fourth overall in that same 1984 draft, and he gave the Mavericks six strong seasons to open a seventeen-year NBA career, averaging better than 15 points and 8 rebounds a night during his time in Texas. He was a stretch big before the term existed, a 6'9" forward-center who shot threes and never seemed to hurry.

He went on to reach the NBA Finals three times with three different teams, the Lakers in 1991, the Sonics in 1996, and the Pacers in 2000, and finished with more than 15,000 career points. His number 41 is retired at North Carolina.