Joe Smith (basketball)

Joseph Leynard Smith (born July 26, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player who played at power forward position for 12 teams of 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 Norfolk, Virginia
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Listed weight	225 lb (102 kg)
Career information
High school	Matthew Fontaine Maury (Norfolk, Virginia)
College	Maryland (1993–1995)
NBA draft	1995 / Round: 1 / Pick: 1st overall
Selected by the Golden State Warriors
Playing career	1995–2011
Position	Power forward
Number	32, 9, 8, 7, 1
Career history
1995–1998	Golden State Warriors
1998	Philadelphia 76ers
1999–2000	Minnesota Timberwolves
2000–2001	Detroit Pistons
2001–2003	Minnesota Timberwolves
2003–2006	Milwaukee Bucks
2006	Denver Nuggets
2006–2007	Philadelphia 76ers
2007–2008	Chicago Bulls
2008	Cleveland Cavaliers
2008–2009	Oklahoma City Thunder
2009	Cleveland Cavaliers
2009–2010	Atlanta Hawks
2010	New Jersey Nets
2010–2011	Los Angeles Lakers
Career highlights and awards
NBA All-Rookie First Team (1996) Naismith College Player of the Year (1995) AP Player of the Year (1995) UPI College Player of the Year (1995) Adolph Rupp Trophy (1995) Consensus first-team All-American (1995) Third-team All-American – UPI (1994) ACC Player of the Year (1995) 2× First-team All-ACC (1994, 1995) ACC Rookie of the Year (1994) Third-team Parade All-American (1993)
Career NBA statistics
Points	11,208 (10.9 ppg)
Rebounds	6,575 (6.4 rpg)
Blocks	868 (0.8 bpg)
Stats 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 attended Maury High School and played at the University of Maryland.

NBA career

Golden State Warriors (1995–1998)

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. 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.

Joe Smith would play two-and-a-half 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's statistics declined immediately after the trade, and never fully recovered.

Minnesota Timberwolves (1998–2003)

Despite a drop in production, Smith was seen still as a hot commodity in the free agency blitz that followed the strike in late 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

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.[3] 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.[4][5]

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.[6] 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 pick was ultimately returned).[5]

The move hurt the Timberwolves in the long run, as while the team still found success, the lack of draft picks denied them a chance to add more depth behind Garnett. This set the team up for their eventual failure in the mid-2000s, from which the franchise has never really recovered. Since advancing to the Western Conference finals in 2004, the Wolves have tallied only two winning seasons out of fifteen.

Detroit Pistons (2000–2001)

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 the Timberwolves where he played for two more seasons.

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

NBA journeyman (2003–2011)

For the next three seasons Smith played for the Milwaukee Bucks. Prior to the 2006–07 season, Smith moved on to the Nuggets, where he only played in 11 games before being traded, along with Andre Miller, back to the 76ers for 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.[7] 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.[8]

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.[9]

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.[10] 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.[11]

On December 15, 2010, Smith was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in a three-team trade involving the Nets and Houston Rockets.[12][13] 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.[14]

Coaching

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,[15] but he was ultimately not hired for the position.

Smith continues to coach in the greater Atlanta area with the private coaching service, CoachUp.[16]

NBA career statistics

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

Regular season

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
1997–98	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
2006–07	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
2007–08	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
2008–09	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	0.5
2010–11	L.A. Lakers	12	0	3.7	.167	.000	1.000	1.5	.3	0	.3	0.5
Career		1,030	619	26.2	.455	.238	.790	6.4	1.0	.6	.8	10.9

Playoffs

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

Highlights

• Was named to the All-Rookie First Team in 1995–96 after being chosen first overall in the 1995 NBA draft.
• In 1995, was named National Collegiate Player of the Year by the Atlanta Tip-Off Club (Naismith Award), the Associated Press (Adolph Rupp Award), United Press International, Basketball America and Eastern Basketball.
• Portrayed Connie Hawkins in the movie Rebound.[17]
• He shares the record (with Chucky Brown, Tony Massenburg and Jim Jackson) for the most franchises played for in an NBA career. He played for 12 out of 30 franchises in the NBA.[18]

Music career

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.[19]

See also

• List of National Basketball Association career games played leaders

References

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. Millea, John (2000). "Lonewolf". The Sporting News. 224 (48): 10.
4. Brian Sampson (April 24, 2017). "What If Joe Smith Didn't Sign An Illegal Contract?". FanSided.
5. Sean Highkin (January 9, 2014). "The bizarre saga of Joe Smith's illegal Minnesota Timberwolves contract". USA Today.
6. J. A. Adande (October 23, 2000). "Minnesota Feels Stern's Wrath". Los Angeles Times.
7. "Bulls sign veteran forward Joe Smith". July 19, 2007. Archived from the original on June 30, 2007.
8. Cavaliers Acquire Williams in Three-Team Trade, August 13, 2008
9. 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.
10. Smith, Sekou (August 26, 2009). "Atlanta Hawks sign Joe Smith". Atlanta Journal Constitution. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014.
11. "Nets Sign Veteran Forward". The New York Times. Associated Press. September 11, 2010. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014.
12. "Lakers acquire joe smith in three-team trade". NBA.com. December 15, 2010. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
13. Stephenson, Colin (December 15, 2010). "Nets make three-way Terrence Williams deal official". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
14. "Pistons vs. Lakers - Box Score - January 4, 2011 - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
15. https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2015/06/09/phoenix-suns-workouts-corey-hawkins-asu-nba/28770583/
16. www.coachup.com/coaches/joes-23
17. Steele, David (November 20, 1996). "Smith Plays Hawkins In HBO Movie". Sun Sentinel. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014.
18. "Most Franchises Played For". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
19. 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

• TheDraftReview.com – Smith's NBA Draft History Page
• NBA.com profile