The story of how Marcus Smart almost committed to the UNC basketball program

Another "oh, what could have been" story for fans of the UNC basketball program.

On a recent episode of Tidal League's "Run Your Race Podcast," hosted by former Tar Heel Theo Pinson, current NBA standout Marcus Smart discussed how he was close to committing to Roy Williams and the UNC basketball program.

Below is the full transcript from what Smart had to say regarding the situation.

“I was going to North Carolina. Roy Williams was on his way to a meeting, to a house call. I’ll never forget this s***. He was on the way. It’s Friday, it’s Thursday, Friday. Sunday he’s coming for a house visit. Phil Forte said on a Friday ‘Hey come to Oklahoma State with me for my official visit. I don’t want to go by myself. . . ‘ I’m like ‘Hell naw. And them I’m like, F*** it, it’s not that far. So we go, and I go and I’m like ‘Bro, I have to be back. I have Roy coming; I gotta get back. I can't miss that.’ He’s like ‘Cool, you will be back.’

We get there, instantly off rip coaches didn’t say anything to me, Travis Ford didn’t really say anything to me. Uh, Butch Pierre didn’t really, they said ‘What’s up’ but they didn’t really try to recruit me. And they were like ‘We understand, we know you have Roy Williams coming.’ Everybody knows about that. They take Phil off and they walk off, while all this was going on, they were the first school to ever do that. Every other school that called or asked about recruitment was like ‘If we get Phil, will you come?’ And I’m like ‘To be honest, nah. Cause we’re not on that. We are trying to go our separate ways.’

And after that meeting, me and Phil talked, and he was like, ‘Man, we’ve been doing this since the third grade. We might as well finish this s*** off the right way.’ Then I’m like, ‘S***, you are right. Why not? I got the best shooter in the country, and you have one of the best playmakers, so why not?”

Essentially, Oklahoma State was able to sway Smart away from Chapel Hill. Pinson, as he normally does when talking about the UNC basketball program, told Smart that he "could've won a chip," citing that the 2012 team, in his words, was "niceeeeeeeeee!"

Smart ended up playing two seasons at Oklahoma State before being selected with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. You could definitely make the case that Smart could've taken both Tar Heel teams during that span to even greater heights.

But, as we said earlier, "oh, what could've been."