Joe Smith (basketball)

Joseph Leynard Smith (born July 26, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. A power forward, he played for 12 teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) during his 16-year career.

Joe Smith
Smith with the Lakers in December 2010
Personal information
Born (1975-07-26) July 26, 1975 (age 48)
Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight225 lb (102 kg)
Career information
High schoolMatthew Fontaine Maury
(Norfolk, Virginia)
CollegeMaryland (1993–1995)
NBA draft1995: 1st round, 1st overall pick
Selected by the Golden State Warriors
Playing career1995–2011
PositionPower forward
Number32, 9, 8, 7, 1
Career history
19951998Golden State Warriors
1998Philadelphia 76ers
19992000Minnesota Timberwolves
2000–2001Detroit Pistons
20012003Minnesota Timberwolves
20032006Milwaukee Bucks
2006Denver Nuggets
2006–2007Philadelphia 76ers
2007–2008Chicago Bulls
2008Cleveland Cavaliers
2008–2009Oklahoma City Thunder
2009Cleveland Cavaliers
2009–2010Atlanta Hawks
2010New Jersey Nets
2010–2011Los Angeles Lakers
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points11,208 (10.9 ppg)
Rebounds6,575 (6.4 rpg)
Blocks868 (0.8 bpg)
Stats Edit this at Wikidata at NBA.com
Stats Edit this at Wikidata at Basketball-Reference.com

Born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, Smith was the College Player of the Year at Maryland in 1995 and the No. 1 pick of that season's NBA draft, picked by the Golden State Warriors. He was named to the 1995–96 All-Rookie team.[1] Smith was mobile throughout his career, as he was one of the most traded players in league history.[2] In 1998, Smith was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers; he then played for the Minnesota Timberwolves (with a midway pitstop for the Detroit Pistons) until 2003. He later played for the Milwaukee Bucks, the Denver Nuggets, the 76ers again, the Chicago Bulls, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Atlanta Hawks, the New Jersey Nets, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Smith was on the active roster of 12 different teams, which was an NBA record shared with Jim Jackson, Tony Massenburg, Chucky Brown, and Ish Smith; until Ish played with the Denver Nuggets, his 13th team, in the 2022–23 season.[3]

Smith attended Maury High School and played at the University of Maryland.

Collegiate career edit

Smith played for Maryland for two seasons. As a sophomore, Smith averaged 20.8 points and 10.6 rebounds a game, and was named to the AP NCAA All-America Team.[4] On March 2, 1995, Smith scored a collegiate career high 40 points and made a game winning tip in shot during a 94-92 victory over Duke.[5]

NBA career edit

Golden State Warriors (1995–1998) edit

In the 1995 NBA draft, Smith was selected by the Golden State Warriors as the first overall pick, before fellow power forwards Kevin Garnett, Antonio McDyess and Rasheed Wallace, as well as guard Jerry Stackhouse. On November 30, 1995, Smith scored his highest single game point total of his rookie season, with 30 points in a 125-121 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.[6] On January 20, 1996, Smith grabbed a career high 20 rebounds, while also scoring 21 points, during a 110-102 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.[7] At the end of the year, after starting all 82 games, Smith was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team for the 1995–96 season and finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting to Damon Stoudamire and Arvydas Sabonis.

The following season, Smith would average a career best 18.7 points per game,[8] second on the team only to Latrell Sprewell's 24.2 points per game.[9] On January 8, 1997, Smith scored a career high 38 points in a 109-95 loss to the Vancouver Grizzlies.[10] For the second season in a row, however, the Warriors would again miss the postseason, this time with a 30-52 record.

Smith would play 2+12 years for the Warriors before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers with Brian Shaw for Clarence Weatherspoon and Jim Jackson midway through the 1997–98 season. The trade was engineered by Golden State as Smith had made clear his desire to return to the east coast, and he was approaching free agency (halfway through the final year of his 3-year rookie contract). Smith turned down a multi year $80+ million contract with the Warriors. He made a reported $61 million over his career.

Minnesota Timberwolves (1999–2001) edit

Despite a drop in production, Smith was seen still as a hot commodity in the free agency blitz[citation needed] that followed the strike in lockout 1998. In what seemed at the time like a bizarre move, Smith signed for very little money with the Minnesota Timberwolves. For the next two years, Smith played very productively at small forward alongside All-Star Kevin Garnett.

Timberwolves salary cap scandal edit

Following the 1999–2000 season, it was discovered that Smith was involved in a salary cap-evading scandal involving Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor and general manager Kevin McHale. Smith was allegedly promised a future multimillion-dollar deal if he signed with the team for below market value, allowing the team to make some additional player moves in the short term.[11] As part of the deal, Smith signed three one-year contracts for less than $3 million apiece, allowing the Timberwolves to retain his "Bird rights" and exceed the cap to re-sign him. At the end of the last one-year contract, Smith could have signed a new long-term contract that would have paid as much as $86 million.[12][13]

The beginning of the end for the illicit deal came when Smith's agent, Andrew Miller, left the sports marketing firm helmed by Eric Fleisher and retained Smith and Garnett as clients. Fleisher sued, and details of the illegal contract came to light in discovery.[14] NBA Commissioner David Stern severely punished the Timberwolves in response. He fined the team $3.5 million and voided all three short-term contracts—and with them, Smith's "Bird rights." He also barred Taylor from having any role in the Timberwolves' operations until August 31, 2001, and forced McHale to take an unpaid leave of absence through July 31, 2001. More seriously in the long run, Stern stripped the Timberwolves of their first-round draft picks in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 (though the 2003 and 2005 picks were ultimately returned).[13][15]

The team still found success, culminating in 2004 when the Timberwolves finished with the best record in the Western Conference, and advanced all the way to the Western Conference Finals.

Detroit Pistons (2000–2001) edit

Joe Smith was released by the Timberwolves and signed with the Detroit Pistons for the 2000–01 season as a backup. Smith produced good numbers for the Pistons and, at the end of the season, he re-signed with his former team the Timberwolves where he played for two more seasons until the end of the 2002-03 NBA season.

Milwaukee Bucks (2003–2006) edit

In 2003, Smith and teammate Anthony Peeler were traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Sam Cassell and Ervin Johnson. Smith spent three seasons with the Bucks. During the 2004 NBA Playoffs, Smith averaged postseason career highs of 13.2 points and 10 rebounds per game during a 4-1 first round loss to the Pistons.[16]

 
Smith (left) driving against the Warriors' Chris Webber (#4) with the Bulls in 2008

NBA journeyman (2007–2011) edit

Prior to the 2006–07 season, Smith was traded to the Nuggets for Ruben Patterson, where he only played in 11 games before being traded, along with Andre Miller, back to the 76ers for former teammate Allen Iverson. Despite being considered an add-in on the deal, Smith averaged over 25 minutes per game with the 76ers, during the team's ultimately unsuccessful second-half battle to make the playoffs. For the 2007–08 season, Smith signed with the Chicago Bulls.[17] Smith averaged over 11 points and 5 rebounds per game for the Bulls, but the team managed only 33 wins the whole season. Smith was traded in a three-team deal at the trade deadline to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

 
Smith as a Cleveland Cavalier

On August 13, 2008, Smith was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a three-team, six-player deal involving the Thunder, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Cleveland Cavaliers that sent Milwaukee's Mo Williams to Cleveland, Smith and Milwaukee's Desmond Mason to Oklahoma City, and Cleveland's Damon Jones and Oklahoma City's Luke Ridnour and Adrian Griffin to Milwaukee.[18]

The Thunder traded Smith to the New Orleans Hornets along with Chris Wilcox and draft rights to DeVon Hardin on February 17, 2009 for Tyson Chandler but on February 18, 2009 the trade was rescinded after Chandler failed a physical with Oklahoma City.[19]

On March 1, 2009, the Thunder bought out the remainder of Smith's contract and released him. Two nights later, he agreed to terms to rejoin the Cavaliers.

On August 25, 2009, he signed a one-year contract with the Atlanta Hawks.[20] On March 17, 2010, Smith became the 92nd player in NBA history to reach 1,000 games played, in a victory over the New Jersey Nets.

On September 10, 2010, Smith signed a deal with the New Jersey Nets.[21]

On December 15, 2010, Smith was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in a three-team trade involving the Nets and Houston Rockets.[22][23] On January 2, 2011, Smith made his debut for the Lakers. Two days later, he scored his first points as a member of the team.[24]

Coaching career edit

Smith wound up participating in one of the Phoenix Suns' pre-draft practices on June 9, 2015 as someone to help out center Alex Len during practice. He was initially considered a candidate to take on one of the Suns' player development coaching roles,[25] but he was ultimately not hired for the position.

Smith continues to coach in the greater Atlanta area with the private coaching service, CoachUp.[26]

NBA career statistics edit

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
 *  Led the league

Regular season edit

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1995–96 Golden State 82 82* 34.4 .458 .357 .773 8.7 1.0 1.0 1.6 15.3
1996–97 Golden State 80 80 38.6 .454 .261 .814 8.5 1.6 .9 1.1 18.7
1997–98 Golden State 49 49 33.6 .429 .000 .769 6.9 1.4 .9 .8 17.3
Philadelphia 30 6 23.3 .448 .000 .788 4.4 .9 .6 .4 10.3
1998–99 Minnesota 43 42 33.0 .427 .000 .755 8.2 1.6 .7 1.5 13.7
1999–00 Minnesota 78 9 25.3 .464 1.000 .756 6.2 1.1 .6 1.1 9.9
2000–01 Detroit 69 59 28.1 .403 .000 .805 7.1 1.1 .7 .7 12.3
2001–02 Minnesota 72 63 26.7 .511 .667 .830 6.3 1.1 .5 .8 10.7
2002–03 Minnesota 54 21 20.7 .460 .000 .779 5.0 .7 .3 1.0 7.5
2003–04 Milwaukee 76 76 29.7 .439 .200 .859 8.5 1.0 .6 1.2 10.9
2004–05 Milwaukee 74 73 30.6 .514 .000 .768 7.3 .9 .6 .5 11.0
2005–06 Milwaukee 44 5 20.2 .475 .000 .774 5.2 .7 .5 .3 8.6
2006–07 Denver 11 0 13.5 .479 .000 .833 3.6 .3 .6 .6 5.1
Philadelphia 54 11 25.1 .445 .000 .846 6.7 .9 .6 .4 9.2
2007–08 Chicago 50 35 22.9 .466 .000 .807 5.3 .9 .5 .6 11.2
Cleveland 27 1 21.5 .512 .000 .652 5.0 .7 .3 .6 8.1
2008–09 Oklahoma City 36 3 19.1 .454 .500 .704 4.6 .7 .3 .7 6.6
Cleveland 21 0 19.5 .496 .333 .750 4.7 .8 .3 .7 6.5
2009–10 Atlanta 64 1 9.3 .399 .143 .813 2.5 .3 .1 .3 3.0
2010–11 New Jersey 4 3 6.1 .250 .000 .000 .8 .3 .0 .0 .5
L.A. Lakers 12 0 3.7 .167 .000 1.000 1.5 .3 .0 .3 .5
Career 1,030 619 26.2 .455 .238 .790 6.4 1.0 .6 .8 10.9

Playoffs edit

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1999 Minnesota 4 4 30.0 .297 .000 .727 6.5 1.3 .5 2.0 7.5
2000 Minnesota 4 0 19.8 .471 .000 1.000 3.0 .3 .8 .3 4.5
2002 Minnesota 3 1 14.3 .429 .000 .875 3.7 .0 .0 .3 4.3
2003 Minnesota 5 1 8.0 .667 .000 1.000 1.2 .0 .2 .2 2.8
2004 Milwaukee 5 5 35.0 .491 .000 .923 10.0 .4 .8 2.0 13.2
2006 Milwaukee 5 0 21.2 .485 .000 .667 5.4 .6 .4 .4 7.6
2008 Cleveland 13 0 20.2 .486 .000 .636 4.6 .5 .4 .5 6.6
2009 Cleveland 13 0 16.8 .460 .600 .793 3.7 .2 .5 .5 5.5
2010 Atlanta 5 0 4.8 .000 .000 .000 .4 .0 .0 .2 .0
2011 L.A. Lakers 5 0 2.2 .000 .000 .000 .2 .0 .0 .0 .0
Career 62 11 17.4 .451 .375 .780 3.9 .3 .4 .6 5.4

Music career edit

Smith has recorded a solo rap album under the pseudonym 'Joe Beast'. Included on the album are tracks titled "Murda Kapital" and "I Does This". The album was produced in Oklahoma City, by Tommy Switch and Lorin Roberts, while Smith was playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder.[27]

References edit

  1. ^ "Joe Smith (biography)". NBA Media Ventures. 2009. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  2. ^ Most traded NBA players include: Joe Smith, Chucky Brown, Tony Massenburg and Jim Jackson. "Most Franchises Played For". basketball-reference.com. Archived from the original on April 10, 2014.
  3. ^ BasketballReference.com"Most Teams".
  4. ^ "Joe Smith College Stats". Basketball Reference.
  5. ^ "BASKETBALL; Coach Out, but Smith Is On As Terps Survive Scare". The New York Times. March 2, 1995.
  6. ^ "Joe Smith Rookie Season High 30 Points". Statmuse.
  7. ^ "Joe Smith Career High Rebounds Game". Statmuse.
  8. ^ "Joe Smith Per Game Averages". Basketball Reference.
  9. ^ "1996-97 Golden State Warriors Roster and Stats". Basketball Reference.
  10. ^ "Joe Smith Career High 38 points Game". Statmuse.
  11. ^ Millea, John (2000). "Lonewolf". The Sporting News. 224 (48): 10.
  12. ^ Brian Sampson (April 24, 2017). "What If Joe Smith Didn't Sign An Illegal Contract?". FanSided.
  13. ^ a b Sean Highkin (January 9, 2014). "The bizarre saga of Joe Smith's illegal Minnesota Timberwolves contract". USA Today.
  14. ^ J. A. Adande (October 23, 2000). "Minnesota Feels Stern's Wrath". Los Angeles Times.
  15. ^ "NBA Restores Timberwolves' 2005 Draft Pick". NBA. Archived from the original on September 1, 2012. Retrieved January 28, 2011.
  16. ^ "Joe Smith Per Game Playoffs". Basketball Reference.
  17. ^ "Bulls sign veteran forward Joe Smith". NBA.com. July 19, 2007. Archived from the original on June 30, 2007.
  18. ^ Cavaliers Acquire Williams in Three-Team Trade, August 13, 2008
  19. ^ DeMocker, Michael (February 17, 2009). "New Orleans Hornets trade Tyson Chandler to Oklahoma City". The Times-Picayune. NOLA.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014.
  20. ^ Smith, Sekou (August 26, 2009). "Atlanta Hawks sign Joe Smith". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014.
  21. ^ "Nets Sign Veteran Forward". The New York Times. Associated Press. September 11, 2010. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014.
  22. ^ "Lakers acquire joe smith in three-team trade". NBA.com. December 15, 2010. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
  23. ^ Stephenson, Colin (December 15, 2010). "Nets make three-way Terrence Williams deal official". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
  24. ^ "Pistons vs. Lakers - Box Score - January 4, 2011 - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  25. ^ "Phoenix Suns bring in Corey Hawkins, who takes his best shot at NBA draft".
  26. ^ www.coachup.com/coaches/joes-23
  27. ^ Turner, Jamie (April 20, 2009). "Sing it out: Cavaliers' Joe Smith pushing for an NBA title, and for rap music success, too". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved December 29, 2010.

External links edit