As a young college star, he drew comparisons to the one and only Magic Johnson due to his college choice, stature and exceptional passing ability, and while Steve Smith would never be Magic Johnson, he was uniquely Steve Smith. A player who was able to run your offense, shoot the lights out or slash to the hoop and he was a winner who possessed things you couldn’t teach such as him almost always showing up in the playoffs. He had a phenomenal 4 year career with the Michigan State Spartans where he left as the programs leading scorer, and then be a top 5 pick to a Miami Heat team still looking for their identity. And although Smith would struggle with injuries during his time in Miami, he would form a trio with Glen Rice and Rony Seikaly that helped the Heat to the first successes in franchise history. He would be traded to Atlanta after 3 seasons where he would have his best years on a great all around team consisting of players like Dikembe Mutombo, Mookie Blaylock and Christian Laettner. But, although the Hawks were a great regular season team, they could never get it done in the playoffs as Steve Smith seemed to be the only one to consistently show up. He would play a couple solid years on some exceptional Portland Trailblazers team which included him being part of the 2000 team who lost to the Shaq and Kobe led LA Lakers in a historic 4th quarter collapse. He would eventually secure his championship in 2003 during his second year with Spurs dynasty consisting of a peak Tim Duncan, aging David Robinson and young Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. His final years consisted of him bouncing around a few teams, including scoring the first three pointer in Charlotte Bobcats history, before retiring after 2005 and 14 seasons in the league.
His career wasn’t incredible, and his play wasn’t flashy, but he got the job done and didn’t back down from anybody, including Michael Jordan who he seemed to raise his game for. But even though he was tough on the court, you’d never think so off the court as he was the incredible kind and generous, winning multiple awards attesting to this. And these are always the types of players that slip through the cracks, so today we’re going to bring attention to Smitty, Steve Smith.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/smithst01.html
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