Local Hoopster Nolan Smith is Working Hard
to Get Back into the NBA
Nolan
Smith has been playing on NBA courts since he could walk.
His
father, the late Derek Smith, was a journeyman guard in the league, playing
nine seasons with five different teams after a successful college career at the
University of Louisville, which included a NCAA Championship in 1980.
Derek was known in basketball circles for his tenacity, grit and relentless drive. He would acknowledge that other players may have more raw talent, but no one was going to outwork him.
"Hard
work is definitely who he was," said Nolan about his father. "No
matter what it was, tennis, track, basketball, school, he always preached
working hard."
For
the first eight years of his life, Nolan was Derek's shadow. He quietly and
intently studied and internalized his father's every word and move. Nolan
idolized Derek, and wanted to be exactly like him: competitive, but with an
unwavering positive attitude and an out-sized joy for life, his family and the
game of basketball. Eighteen years later, he still does.
Derek
passed away suddenly and unexpectedly from an undetected heart defect in 1996.
At the time, Derek was starting his third year as an assistant coach for the
Washington Bullets (now Wizards) and brought Nolan to countless practices and
games, just so they could spend time together. That was part of Derek's deal to
accept the job--Nolan had to be welcome to tag along for everything.
"He
always just told me watch--watch what [the pro players] do, how they carry
themselves, how they handle their business," said Nolan. "I watched
them, but I also watched him. Every day."
Nolan
lost his hero and North Star. Derek's NBA friends stepped in to help fill the
void--Juwan Howard and Johnny Dawkins assumed "big brother" status.
Coach Jim Lynam took Nolan under his wing. Their mentoring and support were
invaluable, but it was the lessons, love and wisdom from his father that formed
Nolan's foundation as an athlete and person.
Talent
was clearly inherited. People often say to Nolan "you look so much like
your father," or "you move like your pop."
"I
love that people see him in me," said Nolan.
But
it is in his commitment to hard work and his joie d'vivre that he most
resembles his father. These are the comparisons he cherishes. And this is what
will carry him through the toughest stretch of his short professional career as
he works he way back into the NBA.
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